Well, as you can see, I have been absent from my normal blog posting. Things have been rather busy at our house over the last few weeks. I will try to update you on what we have been up to.
In late October, we were asked to take the position of missionary pastor at Bethania Baptist Chapel in the Elan Valley. We have been working with this chapel for a year now, and this was a welcome, albeit, unexpected request. After much talking and praying, we have accepted their call and are planning an induction service. We had planned to have it on November 14th, but due to some illnesses in the church, we have changed the date to December 12th. I am not sure how your area is faring with the flu season, but ours is becoming overwhelmed with sickness. We are excited about this opportunity to serve here in Wales.
The kids are all doing well. Breanna is well into her last year of primary school. Next year, she will be starting high school . I can't believe we are there already. It is a bit daunting to think she is starting high school at the age of 11. That is 2 years earlier than in the US, but she will also be finished 2 years earlier. We are learning right along with her, because this is all new to us. Iestyn seems to finally be making some progress with his reading, but he still has a way to go. He is growing up more every day. Ian, as always, brings smiles to our faces everyday. He is, by far, our cheekiest child. He can get himself into the funniest situations. Just last night, he decided he wanted to camp out in his sister's room for the night. He gathered his bedroll and off he went. All was well until about 4am this morning. He woke up firmly stuck underneath Breanna's bed. There he was, screaming to the top of his voice. Breanna couldn't get him out, so he yelled for me. So, I climbed out of my bed to try, only to hear him yell for his dad. After his dad picked the bed up, Ian finally crawled out. Needless to say, that was 30 minutes out of our night. I did not want to wake up this morning. : )
We are well on our way to the holiday season. I am getting my Thanksgiving recipes ready for the missionary get-together in England. We always look forward to getting together with our friends for a traditional Thanksgiving meal. It helps to feel close to "home" even though we are so far away. Christmas lights have gone up here in Rhayader, so things are downhill from here. The kids are super-excited and it is not even December 1st yet.
Most of the time, I post about the things that we do as a family, but at the moment, the Downey family have many friends and family who are going through trials that seem unbearable. We are reminded, that even though we don't know why things happen, God does! We as christians, must be ever aware that the devil can use situations in our life to rob us of our joy and cause us to lose sight of our main goal...to reach others for Christ. Even though our hearts are heavy for those we love, we are confident that God will work in each of these situations!
To our friends and family, we love you and we pray that you are blessed with a wonderful holiday season!
No comments:
Post a Comment