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Spring has Sprung
Spring colour in one of the gardens we look after marked our first 6 months in the UK. WOW where does the time go?
Thursday 14th Maymarked our first 6 months in our flat and we have already renewed the lease for another 6 months. We love living in the village and being part of village life.
We have now moved into spring and the weather has improved with temperatures nudging 20 some days. The number of daylight hours has also increased, currently between 6am and 8pm. On
Saturday 6th June we head for Tenby in Wales for a week's holiday. We are travelling by train as Albrighton is on the train line to Wales and the train stops at Tenby after a 6 hour journey. We have booked a cottage in the centre of Tenby so no need for a car.
On
Sunday 3rd May we were given the privilege of leading the Family Service at St Chads. The Gospel reading was taken from John 15: 1-8 and is about Jesus being the Vine. Given the reading we thought it appropriate to tell the congregation about our involvement with Msalato Nursery School in Tanzania and how God has bound together Holy Trinity Anglican Church in
Spring Garden
The outlook from the same garden Hastings Victoria Australia, C Smart International (the company where Jess worked for 10 years), St Chads Anglican Church in Boningale UK and Msalato Nursery School. We put together a table presentation that included photos of the nursery school, an information leaflet and of course Bob Collies Prayer Sticks. We also created a video presentation showing the Nursery School our supporters and our 2015 fundraising targets. We used the Hymn 'Bind Us Together Lord' as the music track on the video. The Hymns for the service were taken from a 'Precious Moments' DVD where we used our projector to show words and a backdrop of scenery from Keswick. Something different for a St Chads service and it seemed to go well with the congregation.
Our involvement with the church here continues to increase. Jess is now ringing the bells at St Chads before Sunday services and he also took an opportunity on
Saturday 16th May to help ring the bells at St Cuthbert’s for a very upmarket wedding, for this he was paid! We are now both members of St Chads PCC where Jess has taken on the role of Secretary. We have both volunteered to be the St Chads
Weeds Removed
Another one of our gardens representatives on the Deanery Synod which meets 4 times a year and on
Thursday 28th May we will be attending a Diocesan meeting with the Archdeacon where Church Wardens from the various churches are sworn in for the coming year.
We continue to attend the 9.30am Wednesday midweek Eucharist service at St Mary's and Jess has also joined the teams at St Mary's that run the 'say YES!' Friday night youth group, as well as the group that mans the Saturday morning food bank.
Outside of church we are doing well with our part time work. Jess's work at the Village Wine shop has finished for a variety of reasons however he has now started working 2 days per week at the Menswear shop in the High street, so he has gone from 'Our Granville' to 'Mr Humphreys'? The Gardening work continues to increase due to the good weather and we now have 4 customers and Evelyn continues with her work at the Cedars Care Home.
God has been so good to us both in our Church life and by providing what we need to live here in the UK.
Thursday 7th May was a General
Bind Us Together
Theme for our Family Service at St Chads Election in the UK which is very different than Elections in Australia. They are held on a Thursday with voting open until 10.00pm, its first past the post decision, no Upper House and voting is not compulsory. We were both eligible to vote and both did and as you may have heard the outcome was a surprise to most.
Coming events that we will be attending include
Friday 22nd May St Chads monthly Chip & Chat,
Sunday 24th May Pentecostal Picnic hosted by St Chads,
Friday 29th May/Saturday 30th May St Mary's beer festival and
Sunday 31st May United Benefice Service hosted by St Chads.
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Bob and Phyllis Collie
non-member comment
You have really settled in.
Thanks for you latest blog. We too have settled into Nunawading after 8 months. We are well into winter even in May. Fortunately we have ducted heating which heats the whole unit and is reasonably efficient. We go to a Bible study here in the Seventh Day Adventist village. A very bright and lively woman chaplain leads the group. We are going through a DVD dramatization of Matthews Gospel. All the cast are Christians and the whole take was saturated in prayer. It is very powerful to watch and moves us greatly. It takes 4 hours and you can search by event and chapter. It is word for word NIV version. It is sold by the International Bible Society and Pathway Media. If you have a digital projector, it is a great and powerful way to present the Gospel in Church. We have been blown away by its impact. It cost $10. We are both well although a bit forgetful. Love to you both, Bob and Phyllis.