AUTUMN 2011
Autumn
has been ablaze with colour throughout the whole season in this
lovely part of the country and we feel privileged to live in the
middle of it all. This is a season we missed in coastal Pembs where
the leaves generally tend to get blown off before they turn golden –
often whilst still green! It has been a busy season for us with Ifor
taking 11 harvest festivals most needing new sermons each time as
people support each other's. This has been on top of us both being
out preaching most Sundays. This autumn I (Penny) manned a Ugandan
jewellery stall at 4 different events and did 14 slideshows of
Uganda/Kenya at various groups around the county. In addition to this
we both led a whole morning on life in Uganda for 100 nine year olds
at our son-in-law's school, including getting the children to do
African dancing while balancing plastic cups on their heads! The
children went on to sell £700 of jewellery made by the children of a
school we support in Uganda.
In
September I took a couple of ladies from Erwood to join a group from
Breconshire W.I.'s on a walking holiday based at Ffald y Brenin in
Pembs. One of the group asked me for prayer for a very painful knee
for which she was awaiting an operation. She felt God's peace and the
pain left so she was able to walk the next two days without pain. A
visitor to the centre asked me to pray for a migraine that was
starting. She said it tends to come up from a nerve in her foot where
she had had a tumour removed 16 years previously. This had left her
without three toes and a large chunk of her foot. As I prayed the
headache subsided and she felt heat coming upwards along what I
presume was a damaged nerve. The following morning she found me just
as we were about to leave the centre. She proceeded to take off her
sock to excitedly show me three tiny toe buds along the severed edge
of her foot that weren't there before and she could wiggle them! To
balance this bit of excitement, two new people have come to Waterloo
Cottage for healing and as yet have not really seen any improvement.
A third one who came to us has received partial improvement to his
stiffened neck. The two who have been coming regularly since February
for their “incurable” conditions have both seen substantial
improvement – one is writing a book about it!
A woman in a
nearby town asked us to pray in her house where members of her family
had seen three different ghosts and she herself had seen things move,
been woken by voices every night that had no source and felt a cold
presence regularly. Since we prayed she was no longer being woken at
night and things seemed a lot better but in two of the rooms things
still moved, even in her sight. We returned to pray again and so far
so good. Hopefully all is settled down there now. We will visit her
again in the new year, unless she asks us to come back sooner.
Ifor has been
helping a farmer who has got very behind with his farm records. So
often its the ones who need assistance who do not ask for it, so Ifor
will be getting training soon in this line so that he will be able to
go around the farms with something worthwhile to offer them. This
will enable him to meet a lot more farmers without holding them up
from their work. He has had confirmation from a number of sources
that this would be a useful service to offer.
Many of you may
remember that Ifor started writing a book in 2006 but with everything
happening it was never completed. After several promptings he has put
aside a few weeks to focus on this, rearranging again and again the
format and writing new chapters. He hopes to get this finished by the
end of this year and off to publishers.
A few weeks ago
Ifor went to a conference like the one we both went to a year ago,
learning a way of starting a movement of discovery groups. This has
created fast growing movements in other countries around the world
but has not been done in this way in this country – yet! He came
back
inspired and
encouraged, so when his book is finished we hope to start moving
forward with this in the new year, getting groups started around the
county.
Poor
Mary stubbed and broke her toe soon after her return from China so
has been convalescing with us whilst looking for new employment. She
had an interview in Fishguard Comprehensive School, Pembs and has
been offered a contract there until the end of August as a Learning
Support Assistant. This suits her perfectly as she is hoping to teach
English abroad again after that. This week she and a friend found a
flat in St.Davids which they will share. The school hope she can
start before Christmas, but this depends on the CRB check being
completed. Whilst being here she has helped at a new youth club in
Builth Wells started by Christians, a Welsh nursery school in Builth
Wells, sat in on English lessons for Ghurka children in a school in
Brecon and spoken about her visit to China at a BMS evening in
Brecon.
This Christmas the
whole family will gather at Waterloo, apart from Katie and Sam in New
Zealand who will be included in the celebrations via Skype (wonderful
invention)! Before that I will be carol singing with Erwood W.I
around the farms and village; playing Joseph in a funny nativity play
with Aberedw W.I at a county event; we'll both be at the Erwood
station Craft Centre once again at the Christmas do there; then on
Christmas morning Ifor will be dressed as a tramp at a joint service
nearby! Happy Christmas to you all!
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