Out with the OLD and IN with the NEW

2014 is not a year I would want to repeat, but that I am able to be writing these words is a miracle, in itself. Like you, I have taken Birthdays, Christmas and New Year in their stride but 2014 brought me so close to physical death – according to the Dra. at the regional hospital – that having exhausted all their knowledge and medications, sent me home to die. This is the Christmas and New Year that no one – other than God – thought I would have. TO GOD BE THE GLORY.

This afternoon I met with those attending our midweek meeting where we discussed the past and our expectations for 2015.  We had a lady whose husband had recently died but whose faith in God had been liberated as a result, and testimony after testimony of God meeting us at the point of our deepest need – by the Holy Spirit – and discussed the form of worship each of us found most (and least) attractive. Our widows may live alone but told us none of them felt lonely. The congregation in Jávea, a tourist resort on the Eastern (Mediterranean) coast of central Spain, is renowned for the welcome it gives to all who attend the various services, and who always subsequently talk (or write) of feeling as if they had been reunited with long-lost members of the family they didn’t know they had.

We reminded ourselves of the Scripture which has served as our ‘motto’ for the past number of years: “For we know that God WORKETH ALL THINGS together for GOOD for those who love HIM and have been called according to HIS purpose.” [Romans 8:28]. In all of our lives there are occurrences we would rather ‘detour’, but it is those very events which God mixes (like making a cake) with the ‘good’ things, to prune us so we bear the fruit He knows is within us.

Please accept the thanks of Ann and I to you, your family, clergy and congregation for the prayerful support we have received. We have fond memories of those of you whom we have personally met and trust 2015 will provide opportunities for us to get to know each other better.

In closing, I commit you into the love, care and protection of God, by Whom you have been called, and Who has promised the power and anointing to achieve His expectations of you.

++Clive