Moulding Chronicles January 2016

Dear Friends,

Over the holidays we were glad of an afternoon to ourselves to reflect on last year finding the threads of God’s hand through the year and looking forward to the year to come. Looking back we saw how at times we took our eyes off the Lord and tried to work things out in our own strength and then got frustrated when things didn’t work out. But even through this we saw how God used our lack of dependence to bring us back into depending on Him and increasing our desire to seek Him more and more. This was brought into focus for us both as we read through Bruce Wilkinson’s book called ‘Secrets of the Vine’ based on John 15 and considered whether God was disciplining us, pruning us or asking us to abide more with Him and bear more fruit. So 2015 has continued to grow and shape our character for which we are very grateful to God.

In December we finished the book When Sinners say I do by Dave Harvey with the families group. Throughout the study this year we haven’t been sure as to whether it has had much impact or not, however in drawing it to a close there were a number of encouraging comments about what people had taken from it. Such as looking for were God’s grace is at work and praising God for that and not focusing on the negatives, seeing the need to extend mercy and forgiveness in the little things, learning that God really is interested in every area of our lives and how he gave these different areas for our enjoyment, being thankful for the challenge of the book regarding relational struggles. In February the group will start again and we will see where it goes next.

Over the last 2 months Ed has begun to coach colleagues and friends and is finding it really enjoyable and something that fits his passions to walk with people and help them discover God more. It has been a joy to see people share their desires and hopes and to watch them work out how to fulfill them. The challenge now is to balance his time well with his current responsibilities which he hopes to gradually phase out of and the requirements needed to do the coaching well.

At home Sarah has just begun a new Homeschool year with Alana and Isaiah. They have had a good start with Isaiah’s energy and enthusiasm to learn encouraging her. This week they started a new morning bible study series on Wisdom, learning about what it means to be wise people. We are enjoying sowing seeds into their lives and we are excited to see what fruit will come from it in the future. God is faithful.