News from the Colyer 6

Dear All,

This newsletter is a funny one to write as there is not much YWAM news but a lot of family things to talk about. Following our last letter Nicki has been incredibly tired with the pregnancy and sicker than I have ever seen her! Life has got rather grim over the last 5 weeks; twin pregnancies are heavy and in Nicki’s case that is no joke! However, now that the pregnancy has reached 14 weeks things are improving rapidly and Nicki seems to be getting better day by day!

A few weeks ago we needed to nip to hospital as there was a slight problem with one of the placentas causing some bleeding. Nicki needed some extra care for a week or so as she rested and took medication. The placenta is perfectly fine now and we had a joyous time looking at the scans of the babies, one of whom was clearly waving at me (when not treading on its sibling’s head)! The babies are in perfect health and growing well. By the way we don’t know the sex yet, so please don’t assume Alfie and Betty will be boy and girl. Or even Alfie and Betty!

Special mention goes to all the people at St Paul’s and The Link who made us meals for a two week period. Wow, what a huge help.  We need the recipes now as it has motivated us to expand our menu! We promise to return the pots to you all in due course.

Talking about The Link, I had tasked myself with creating a short video to explain to the St Paul’s church better what our church plant is like. For various reasons I had a strict deadline, so the background noise and poor light were unavoidable. I will be putting some other videos together too that explain the church better for people seeking a church. Anyway I was very pleased with the result. Have a look yourself…

What I was thrilled about was how easily the people I interviewed explained themselves and how little jargon they used. I think we are achieving our goal of creating a church for ordinary people where they can (re-)discover the Christian faith in a warm and welcoming environment.  My next project will be to make a video of our work here in YWAM and all the different ministries!

Hawk-eyed viewers will spot another stop-frame animation in the video. Nicki, Sam, Ellie and I took an hour one Sunday to work on this. It was hard work as the camera kept draining the batteries and needed changing which causes jerks etc. But Sam made the Lego letters and we all took turns removing one brick and clicking the camera.

Creativity is blossoming in Ellie too, when she is not ballet dancing (she is getting good) she has now turned her hand to creating Authentic Antique Treasure Maps! She insisted that she needed some old teabags and then started to wipe them over various maps she and Sam had drawn. The end result is very good, although one tip I would suggest is to not use the back of old emails to do your antique maps on as the ink soaks through and spoils the antique look a bit!

That is it for this month. It is more of a family catch up. There will be more YWAM news next time I hope!

Love,

Kevin and Nicki

Prayer points

• Thanks for the increasingly good health for all
• Sam and Ellie continue to enjoy school and grow and develop
• For the continued growth of the Link and for many to find faith there
• For all the many things we must do in YWAM and the ongoing ministry

Diary Dates

• End of March – Health permitting, Nicki to visit Stroud with the children
• 30th March – 4th April – Kevin to the Western European Leaders Conference
• 5th April – YWAM Belgium Alumni day
• 7th April – YWAM Belgium Staff day

News update!

Dear All,

We seem to have slipped a little on our stricter schedule of getting news to you but I think you will be able to forgive us when we tell you our latest news!

We had a great Christmas, as I hope all of you did. Despite the very sad circumstances of Nicki’s Grandmother’s funeral just a few days before Christmas, Nicki and her Mother (who came back with her) both had a great Christmas and the chance to relieve the sadness with a lot of joy.

We all entered the New Year much refreshed after a great break and got straight back to work with our annual set of inventories. The bookshop and akaZOE both needed stock counting but we made record time this year. This is a good sign that we are more efficient than ever now, especially when you consider that the bookshop has got a lot more stock than last year. The shop also made a respectable profit too which is a good sign.

Alfie and Bettie

However, our world was pleasantly shaken with the discovery that Nicki is pregnant! Actually that was not world shaking as we had been planning this, but 2 weeks ago Nicki went for her first Doctors appointment to discover that she is carrying TWINS!!! This was somewhat more wobble-inducing! The twins are non-identical (carrying on a tradition on Kevin’s side of the family for three generations!) and are healthy with good strong heartbeats. Astoundingly, the doctor also took the following photo of the babies. I don’t know if you have ever seen 8 week old babies in the womb as in these photos. We hadn’t and it still makes us go all giddy at the thought of life growing inside Nicki. September 1st is the due date but we should expect anything from the end of July.

The unsurprising upshot of this is that Nicki is as sick as a pig and very, very tired. Kevin is being a hero and taking care of the house whilst she is lying about on the sofa, vomiting, sleeping and demanding toast (you’ve probably realised that Kevin is writing this!). So far the strangest craving she has had are for Falafals in a pitta wrap, but we think this is because they are easily available from the Fritterie just up the road.

Sam and Ellie are over the moon. They keep coming and touching Nicki’s tummy and saying hello to Alfie and Bettie (temporary fun names for now!) . They can’t wait to see the twins. Kevin, Sam and Ellie practised all sitting on the sofa together with a dolly of Ellie’s to see what it would be like. Very pleasant was the result!

So as you can imagine this will change a few things for this coming year. We are so far in the “getting our heads around it all” stage and so we have nothing clear but it does suggest quite a few changes in circumstances (housing, vehicles and work responsibility) aside from tons more washing and sleepless nights. However, the deep thrill of being entrusted with such a gift like this from God is a constant deep joy. Anyway, ask again in 9 months if we still feel the “deep joy”!

We were planning on having a Furlough year, which is where we can take two extra months of leave to visit our dear supporters and home churches and take rest. There is a lot of uncertainty, and travelling whilst heavily pregnant is not fun we hear, so our plans will be altered. We will figure things out over the next few weeks and in our next letter we will let you know our plans. Sadly, it means we won’t see as many of you as we would have hoped.

Apart from this, we have had a good time in YWAM. In general things are going well. Some new staff have arrived and are coming. There is one person in particular you could pray for: please pray for Marina (from Eastern Europe) to get her Visa to come to Brussels. Please pray for her safety too just now.

Be in touch soon!

Kevin and Nicki

Diary Dates:

• 5th – Kevin starting leading 6 weeks of Greenhouse Café training
• 6th – Kevin taking a Vineyard house group meeting in French
• 29th March – YWAM Belgium Alumni day for all DTS graduates living, at the moment, in Belgium
• 31st March – 4th April – Kevin and team at the Western European Leadership Consultation in Holland.
• 7th April – YWAM Belgium staff day away together

Prayer Points

• Pray for Nicki’s health and that she gets plenty of rest. She would love to feel less sick too!
• Pray for wisdom as our family circumstances change
• We are currently trying to sell our house in Plymouth (varied reasons). Please pray it will be vacant soon and we get a quick sale! (Let us know if anyone is interested in buying!)