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!

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.

Buried Treasure!

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?

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.

DRIVING HOME FOR CHRISTMAS

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

Biscuit

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

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