A Special Day

Yesterday was a very special day (Dec 1^st) It was the fist day of the rest of my life. The oncologist at the end of August said I had two to three months to live. That took me to the end of November. It's twice now the medical profession have predicted my death, the first time was in July 2011 when I had the massive blood clot and after three days asked the family to come and say their goodbyes. Well it seems the Lord still wants me around. I celebrated with the family in Liverpool by having a white bread bacon sandwich. Oh yes I really know how to celebrate.

I am doing well; everyone who sees me says I look the picture of health. Even the cough is way, way better than it was. The only down side is I have limited energy.

So we have much to praise the Lord for. He is so good to us. Rita too is just amazing with the way she is coping with everything and is such a wonderful support.

Front and back cover

The book is finally finished and is at the printers as I type this. Its called ‘Adventures in Faith’ with a strap line ‘An ordinary life made extra ordinary by God.’  It should be in our hands within ten days and we are so excited about it.

We are indebted To John and Lin Ball long time friends from Life for the World days who have spent many hours on it getting it print ready. They are uniquely gifted for the task as Lin is the author of a number of books and John a desk top publisher. Also long time friend Jackie Edgell who did the final proof read. It wouldn’t have happened without you all.

We have had a busy weekend, Rita’s sister in law celebrated her 60^th birthday with a great do Saturday night. Yesterday was church in the morning. When we are in Liverpool we go to St Andrews,  Clubmoor . The Vicar Steve and wife Andrea are excellent leaders and the church is fully immersed in the community. The welcome we get when we go is overwhelming.  It is such a joy to be part of it.

Today we have a funeral Rita’s aunt Doris died last week.  She was 92. Later this week we have the dentist and I am speaking on the Kings Lodge DTS on Friday. Hmmm I must get around to some preparation. By the way we never got to Spain, there was a lot of sickness on base but we were able to connect with the other Elders with some long Skype calls.

Sharon and Tim arrive on the 15^th for Christmas. We are so excited to have them with us and so grateful to a number of friends who contacted us to give money to make it all possible. You know who you are and from all of us a hugh thank you.

Tim is with us for two weeks then has to get back for work and Sharon three. She wanted to celebrate her birthday with family in England for a change, which is on the 8^th. She leaves with the children on the 10^th.

So what about the future? Once Sharon has gone, if I am still as well as I am we plan to go away to seek the Lord for three days and just ask the question, ‘Where do we go from here Lord? We know He will speak to us.

So that's us for this month.

Togg on the Blog. (Testimony of Gods Goodness)

I thought I would give a recent one this month.

Rita and I were out having lunch together a few weeks ago and during that time I felt the Lord say to me. Tell that young couple on the next table that I love them and have good plans for them and they need to come to know Me, to discover what those plans are. I never find these things easy and got rather preoccupied with how to approach them and Rita picked it up because she suddenly said, ‘where are you, you are certainly not with me’. Woops. We finished our meal and on the way out I spoke to them. They seemed really open and receptive to what I had to say. We prayed that the Lord would use those feeble words and what a joy it would be to see them in heaven.