Wednesday, 19 December 2012
Beresford Christmas
Letter 2012
BLESSINGS
IN ABUNDANCE
2012 has
been a lovely year for the B's. Still in Guildford and loving it.
Great jobs, schools and Church and more opportunities to get involved
in more things – we're very happy. We hope you too have had a
blessed year and are having a very merry Advent and Christmas. Thank
you to all of you who keep us in your prayers, we know how blessed we
are by your great love and support and couldn't do what we do without
it – you are appreciated.
£810 –
OK, LET'S DOUBLE IT!
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| Walking for water in the rain! |
During
Lent this year Molly walked for 2 miles carrying 2 litres of water on
her back to raise money for CAFOD's “Thirst for Change” campaign
which was raising funds to combat water poverty. Around a third of
the world's population do not have access to clean water, this very
basic of resources, and Molly raised enough money to provide a whole
community with a reliable clean water supply, and because the
Government agreed to match fund this campaign she raised enough for
two communities! CAFOD are now campaigning on food, they are doing
great work see their website for more details www.cafod.org
(ok advert over)!
MASTER
YODA
Ok, so
David is not studying to be a Jedi (although that would be cool) but
he is continuing with his Masters in Biblical Studies – the first
year went well and this is his final and dissertation year. He
looking at “re-telling the storytellers stories”, so how do we
tell the stories of Jesus to a contemporary audience and retain the
impact they would have had when first told and still be culturally
relevant and scripturally accurate (phew). I'm sure he'll let you
read it when it's finished!
WE'RE
ALL GOING ON A SUMMER HOLIDAY
Unfortunately
we didn't hire a London Bus and go on tour for our hols and
fortunately Cliff Richard didn't come with us but we did have some
fabulous short trips throughout the summer. We camped at the Big
Church Day Out festival weekend which was brilliant if a bit rainy on
the Saturday night, and saw some great live music and wonderful
stalls and old-fashioned fairground rides. We saw Rend Collective
Experiment perform who were brilliant and are one of my favourite
bands.
We
camped for the weekend in Broadstairs in Kent which is a lovely
traditional seaside town where we did traditional building of
sandcastles and walls to stop the sea coming in – brilliant.
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| Buried Treasure! |
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| Molly enjoying the Bull Ring |
We took
a five day hotel trip to Birmingham (I know, not exactly on your top
ten list of destinations but keep reading). We'd not been there
before, the hotel was cheaper than staying in a tent per night, it
was forecast to rain, and there are lots of National Trust properties
in the area. We had a thoroughly amazing time – if you're ever in
the centre of Birmingham with a bit of time on your hands we
recommend a visit to the Back-toBacks National Trust property near
the Hippodrome, it was one of the best places we've been to.
Our
final jaunt was a long weekend camping in Chichester with the lovely
Martin and Jimena, very pleasant shopping, cafes and walks had by
all.
PLEASE
SIR, CAN I HAVE SOME MORE?
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| Molly standing on eggs at Celebrate |
We've
got involved in more and more things in our parish and schools which
has been a real blessing if a strain on the diary at times. Reading,
Eucharistic ministers, leading the music, on the parish team, running
training events and giving talks and hopefully starting some family
ministry early next year have been the flavour. Sarah has become a
school governor at Molly's school and David has been involved in
writing the materials for young people for the Diocesan Jubilee
process. The eli perspective course we run training youth workers in
the Diocese continues and we are in the process of setting things up
for 2013. We've also been more involved leading streams and prayer
rooms at the various Celebrate Conferences (see their website for
more – great family weekends). It's great to be so involved and
busy, to share the gifts and experience we have and the joy and
blessings we have received are immeasurable.
Our
car is most definitely on its last legs (or should that be wheels?)
The poor old thing has had it's last repairs and will (hopefully)
take us home for Christmas but won't last too long into the new year.
We won't be able to get a new car with three seats in the front
so we'll miss all sitting together but finances dictate replacing our
wonderful, ugly, multipla with a smaller family car.
STRICTLY
TAP AND BALLET
In the
summer Molly passed her first tap dancing exam and in early December
took her first ballet exam – maybe we have the next Darcey Bussel
in the family? Molly would like to be an archaeologist, however, I
don't imagine there's much call for ballet dancing on a dig!
IN OTHER
NEWS
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| Biscuit |
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| Brownie |
There
are two new additions to the family of the furry friend variety –
the lovely Biscuit and Brownie our gerbils which we got in May of
this year – the photos do not do them justice. They are the
cutest, sweetest most lovable little things.
We hope your Christmas is a truly blessed time for you - thank you for being our friends and family, we will keep you all in our prayers.
Sarah, David & Molly
x x x
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