Chrstmas greetings and Newsletter 2011

Here beginneth the Annual Christmas epistle from the Smiths of Preston, And so in the 400^th year of the King James Bible an appropriate quote

2 Kings 4:14 And he said, What then is to be done for her? And Gehazi answered, Verily she hath no child, and her husband is old…

It feels a bit like that because 2011 has been the year of the empty nest. Martha left home for the Arts University College of Bournemouth a few days after her 18^th birthday and thankfully a year before tuition fees went up, to start a course in Arts events management. With Marcus in his second year of Theology at Kings College London (having a whale of a time sharing a house behind the Elephant and Castle with four others) and Oscar having departed to the Feline Felicitude cat’s home in the sky. With only Jane, Greg and the Mightly Labrador Pawz to share our spacious home, it seems even more spacious and quiet than usual.

Greg turned 60 in September – well of course that is not really old and I don’t feel old at all – just achy sometimes. But it has it’s benefits, free prescriptions and best of all the Senior Railcard, which makes traveling flexible and affordable, and even gets you £2 off on our local Ribble Steam Railway. Since March I’ve been working half time as Research Manager for the Evangelical Alliance which requires a fair bit of travel to London, the railcard is a real boon. The other half of working life has been co-ordinating the Preston Christian Action Network, bringing Christians together to tackle homelessness, poverty, unemployment and other forms of disadvantage in our city. I’m also fitting in a bit of academic work, published another paper on faith and volunteering and just got back from a conference in Antwerp, duly loaded down with photos of Antwerp and Brussels and Belgian chocolates. I’m feeling really happy and fulfilled in the current phase of my vocation.

Jane is still with the Lancashire Probation Trust, working long hours delivering group work programmes to high risk offenders across the county. She suffered the indignity of having to apply for her own job, but at least was reappointed.. Working in the public sector isn’t what it used to be with cuts and insecurities about jobs and pensions – so she was on the London demo and joined the strike at the end of November. Once a month on a Friday night she has interesting experiences in her role as a Street Pastor.

Together we have started this year to do fortnightly volunteering session fro the Wildlife Trust at their new Brockholes nature reserve. Well worth a visit if you are in these parts. We also moved to a new church this year, not an easy process as there were some push factors at St Stephens and we were pretty unsure about the pull factors in terms of a calling to St Matthews. But we have now settled in and travel across town on Sundays to a parish that serves the East End of Preston. It has most of the social characteristics of London’s East End – multiculturalism, poverty, low church attendance – but without the house prices, Canary Wharf or the Olympic building site.

We managed to get holiday breaks in Scotland with the relatives, with our friend Catherine in Swanage, and at Greenbelt. It was also a year of about four funerals and a wedding, not that all of us attended all of them, but we lost people in our friendship circle here and in Newham, and Jane’s nephew got wed in November up in Scotland. It’s also been sad to see people we know struggling with addiction after a period of stability, and others losing a job and struggling to get by. We really count our blessings in terms of good health, worthwhile employment, kids growing up, thriving and following Jesus and lots more.

We wish you all a Blessed Christmas and a Shalom filled New Year.

Luke 1 ⁷⁸Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us, ⁷⁹To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.