Happy New Year to you all! Hope you had a wonderful
Christmas. We thank you all for your Christmas greetings, good wishes, cards
and gifts and we continue to thank you for your prayers and financial support
which are a great blessing to us.
We were extremely
busy before Christmas which explains our long break from blog writing, but have
had a restful few weeks holiday in the UK and the boys went back to school
yesterday so we are now getting back into routine.
On the first of November the rains started and two happy
boys ran straight into the garden to get wet as you can see in the picture. The
rains have been fairly good so far and after a worrying break it has started
raining again today so please pray that it continues so that everyone can get sufficient
crops this year.
In November St. John’s university held its third graduation
ceremony. The picture shows a small party which we held in our garden for 3 of
our graduating friends from our English choir.
Shortly before Christmas Christine held another music and
worship seminar in Kasulu to the West of
Tanzania. This was a very long journey but well worth the effort as once again
the seminar was a huge blessing for all who attended. The pictures show the
team of musicians and evangelists who ran the course and Christine teaching.
After this we set off for a 3 week holiday in the UK which
we all thoroughly enjoyed. We spent Christmas itself with Paul’s family at his
brother’s home in Lancashire and new year with Christine’s family in Cheshire,
then travelled to Paul’s parents’ home in Cardiff, visited friends in Cornwall
and finished up with Paul’s sister near Newbury. It was wonderful to see so
many friends and family though time was short and were sorry to have missed
others. We managed to do many of the
things which the boys had been looking forward to such as fireworks on new year’s
eve, a trip to a pantomime and the cinema, visiting the beach and the Lost
Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall, visiting museums and castles, and much more! Thank you to everyone who made our holiday so
enjoyable.
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| On the beach, Cornwall |
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| At the Lost Gardens of Heligan |
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| With Granny at Raglan Castle |
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| Raglan Castle |
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| With Christine's Grandma |
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| With Stella in St. Austell |
The break back in the UK came at an interesting time for
Paul as it was right in the middle of a particularly hectic semester for him at
the university. Despite having to catch up on his return It turned out to be just
the break he needed, as now as the semester draws to a close, he has managed to
finish all the seemingly never ending marking and administration needed for his
monster course in educational media and technology. This year Paul extended his
e-learning experiments at the university from doing on-line seminars with just
50 students last year to doing so with all 800 students on the course this year.
Early feedback from the students has suggested that it was a great success with
the vast majority of students saying that they preferred these seminars to
normal face-to-face ones and it is hoped that this could lead to further
programmes in e-learning at the university and some research for Paul.
Please pray for the university community which has been
shocked recently by the murder of one of our students whilst walking home from
evening studies on campus. The whole community came together the day after to
pay their respects to her in a service in the main hall and overspilling far outside.
Please pray against any spirit of anger or fear and that those who are now
preparing for their exams may find the comfort in the peace of God which is
normally evident within the university.
We were all sorry to say goodbye recently to our good friends the Heaneys who have returned to the UK. Isaac, especially was sad to see his best friend Sam go. The picture below shows Isaac, Sam and other friends receiveing swimming certificates at school before Christmas.
The attached video clip shows some highlights of 2012
finishing before our Christmas holiday.
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