Greetings,

I never like to start a newsletter with an apology… but I feel I must, as this is long overdue! Thank you to many of you who have been in touch in the meantime, and continue to pray and support us in so many different ways. Life is busy, varied, and full of surprises (like when Caleb suddenly climbed all the way to the top of our stairs yesterday, having never climbed any stairs before!).

We are loving being parents to Caleb, who is now 13 months already – where has the time gone? In the last couple of weeks, he has started sleeping through the night which feels like such a breakthrough. I notice we requested prayer for better sleep when I wrote last June – well, thank you Lord for answering our prayers, but thank goodness we didn’t know then that it would take a year! Caleb loves exploring (and emptying) our kitchen cupboards and crawling around the house with Rosie, who is incredibly tolerant of him stealing her bone and poking her face.

I (Rachel) finally graduated from my BA in Theology, Ministry and Mission in December, which I had been studying through Church Mission Society. The graduation ceremony was very ‘pioneering’ and creative in itself, and involved exploring some interactive stations around the theme of pioneer mission and a ‘campfire’ style ceremony with sung worship and storytelling. It was a special time, and inspiring to be reminded of the importance of sharing the good news of Jesus with those around us in relevant, meaningful and creative ways.

I started a new part-time job in January as a Preschool Worker for our former church where I am particularly enjoying the opportunities for hospitality and welcome for local families, as well as for creativity in planning activities and themes. And, inspired partly by Baby Sensory, a group I loved taking Caleb to, as well as a book I read called ‘Using Christian Contemplative Practice with Children’, I am looking forward to developing and trialling a new Prayer Sensory group in the coming months. I hope this will provide an opportunity for a small group of under-5s with their grown-ups to experiment with different forms of prayer together, using simple movement and our senses etc.

In addition to my paid work, I’m continuing to attend a ‘warm spaces’ church initiative on a local council estate when I can, where I started helping when heavily pregnant. Being pregnant and having a baby are great ice-breakers for conversation and relationship building! I enjoy chatting over a coffee with the people, and it’s been lovely to journey a little with one of the ladies there who has just had her own baby.

Alex has been enjoying his time at Queen’s Theological College in Birmingham, a vibrant and diverse place, where he is studying for ordination in the C of E. He loves his link church, St Chad’s (a 20-minute walk from our house), and has a great working relationship with the vicar there. Alex is enjoying the liturgical style of worship and finds it a particular privilege to be involved in serving the Eucharist, a central part of the service each week. A challenge has been to manage the workload from college, where assignment deadlines seem to be rather incessant!

In addition to Alex’s college work and church placement, he has been continuing ministry in HMP Stoke Heath in a voluntary capacity. He is excited about a recent opportunity to start a ‘centring prayer’ group with inmates, which is something he had wanted to do for a long time. His hope and prayer are that this will provide a prayerful and peaceful space as well as a tool for prayer which the men can implement back on the wings, which are often a stressful and noisy environment.

We are still in touch with some of our ex-residents from 8SC, the community house for ex-offenders we were running here in Shrewsbury until last May. Sadly, some of them are now back in prison, but we have maintained some contact and support through letter writing. It is lovely to see our last resident who was with us until the end doing well still – he has held down a job at our former church café since he left us which is a great achievement for him! He joined us for a dog walk yesterday, and it was so great to catch up with him and see him looking well.

A huge thank you to all of you who pray for and encourage us, and support us financially and otherwise. We love hearing from you and seeing you – we’ve enjoyed having several visitors over the last year, and we love showing people the lovely Shrewsbury. You are always welcome!

Prayer and Praise

• Thanks for God’s faithful provision, enabling us to continue in our ministry and training
• Prayers for Alex’s new church placement in Wolverhampton this term
• For God’s peace and anointing on Alex’s work in prison, especially the centring prayer group
• For continued inspiration and energy for Rachel in her work, ministry and being Mum
• Thanks for the blessing of Caleb and family and friends

With love and every blessing,

Rachel, Alex and Caleb