The Twins are here!

2008-08-19 Birth of Luc Joseph and Joshua John Colyer (click for more and bigger pictures)

Dear All,

After what has seemed like the longest pregnancy in history the boys have arrived!

Please welcome Luc Joseph Colyer, born 1:40am, 19th August 2008, 2.515 Kg (5lbs 8oz) 48,5cm (19″) and Joshua John Colyer, born 1:46am, 2.620 Kg (5lbs 12 1/2oz) 47.5cm (18 1/2″)!

They are perfectly healthy and happy and have their mother’s nose. We had the whole delivery ward to ourselves and the most wonderful care. Nicki has been a model mother and gave birth after a short labour with an excellent delivery. Everyone was impressed, except the doctor perhaps, who got his shoes soaked by Joshua’s waters!

We will keep you all posted but it all looks very good. Please click on the photo for more pictures.

Love,

Kevin, Nicki, Sam, Ellie, Luc and Joshua.

PS You can pronounce Luc however you want (‘Loook’, the French way, or Luke, the English way)

PPS For the Bruxellois, Nicki is in clinic St Michel, Room 314. Visiting hours are 14h30 to 19h30.

No Babies Yet!

Dear All,

We are in the waiting phase… Yes that is right, the twins are not yet here and we are hanging on for them to come. According to the doctor the twins are ‘done’ and ready to come out, but nature needs to take her course. Nicki is as uncomfortable as ever and was practising some gentle aerobics today and contemplating the trampoline to give nature a little ’shove’!

2008-08-01 Holiday photos in Wezembeek (click for more)

We are back in the apartment in Brussels after our wonderful house sitting stint. Ellie remarked today that she likes living in the country, as it is quieter and there are less bangings! (She is referring to a team of Korean Kings Kids who are in the visiting team’s apartment above us and were making banging noises on the ceiling!) But it is great to be back home.

Sam had his ninth birthday yesterday and had a marvellous time. After a massive brunch with our friends Markus and Leonie and family I took Sam and three friends to the fabulous Kessel-lo park for a picnic and lots of fun.

Fund-raising

As we wait for the babies we have been communicating to supporters and doing some fundraising. We wanted to use this letter to explain what our needs are, as there may be some people reading this who would like to enter into financial partnership with us in our work.

We have some BIG thank you’s to say to all our supporters for so many years of faithful support. Please look out for a large letter dropping through your door right now! We have been working in YWAM now for nearly 17 years. Quite amazing really.

As we enter into the next phase, which will begin any moment with blood, sweat and tears(!), we have new challenges of feeding more mouths, driving a larger car, moving to a bigger house and becoming more stable. We know that a good strong support base helps us focus without distraction on the work we do in YWAM. We also know we need to make one of the largest increases we have yet seen in our YWAM careers.

You can find more information from the pages linked on the top right of our blog, plus we have the YWAM Annual report and a ‘Supporting Kevin and Nicki’ document we can send you via PDF too. Basically due to the decline of the Pound to the Euro, plus the need to move to a larger accommodation and general increased expenses we will need to raise another 1,000 Euro a month.

We would really like to ask all of you reading this to prayerfully consider whether God would like you to be a part of this. A regular monthly gift makes the biggest difference to us. (There is a way for UK tax payers to make their gift tax-efficient too.) Some of you are already supporters, and perhaps this would be a good point to reconsider your giving and God-willingly increase it? We just simply wish that you hear clearly from God his prompting. He has looked after us so far through all our wonderful supporters and will continue to. We are certain of that! We will keep you all informed in the next letter how it is going. We have had so much help and gifts towards the twins we are extremely thrilled and amazed at God’s ability to provide through his people.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Please email, call or Skype if you want to know more about supporting us, to ask questions or chat. The next time I write I will be telling you all about the twins! Please keep praying for a safe delivery and that Nicki will quickly regain her energy and pizazz!

Love,

Kevin and Nicki

News July 2008

Dear All,

I am writing in the sun (and rain) drenched wilds of Wezembeek-Oppem, a world apart from our apartment in bustling Brussels (well, 10km anyway). We are house, dog and rabbit sitting for our friends and having a great time. The house plants are not dead. The rabbit and dog have not run off or anything. We are all at peace!

The last few weeks have been a winding down time at work for Kevin. There is not much work to report on and it gets quiet anyway at this time of year. It gives us much time to reflect on how the last two years have gone and what is next. At home we have been getting ready for the furlough and preparing for the babies’ arrival. We have been showered with cots, bottles, buggies and all the baby paraphernalia we could wish for. We only have needed to buy a few things and even then we had an anonymous gift that paid for all but 20 Euros of what we needed. Thank you all sooooo much. So we feel ready for the arrival of the twins.

Ellie’s baptism and birthday (click for more)

The biggest happening have been in the lives of Sam and Ellie. Sam finished school well and has made great  progress this year. It all has come together for him with strong friendships, a great teacher and several good achievements at school. He is now a free reader, which was a major goal for him. His football skills are growing and he is becoming a fearless goal keeper.

Ellie had another great year too. This was the first official year of primary and she has excelled. She can now read (and write) basic French. Nicki and I keep getting little notes under our pillows telling us “tu é mon trésur” and such like. She writes phonetic French which is so delightful to read. Not content with that she is reading English too using her phonetic skills to piece together sentences. If only we all could keep such an absorbent memory all our lives! She passed her seventh birthday and a day later was baptised in a swimming pool just around the corner from the church. She has firmly decided that she wanted to follow Jesus her whole life and this was why she asked to be Baptised. We are very pleased as we wanted all our children to be able to make the decision to follow Christ for themselves.

The Baptism’s have been a high point of life in the church plant. This year we have seen strong growth and we are all feeling confident that over the next year God will do more. The saddest thing is saying goodbye to Sean and Helen and family as they are leaving Belgium to take up leading a church plant in Reading. We will miss them very much. However, the church itself is in a strong place and Sean’s low key leadership style has meant that the church is very much a team endeavour and the responsibility is already spread around. We are hoping to recruit a replacement for Sean over the next year, but please pray that we continue to grow with confidence anyway!

Nicki has been enduring the last months of her pregnancy. She is exploring the deeper meaning of the expression “Great with Child”.  The latest news is that the babies are fine and healthy (as is their mother) and look like they are enjoying it in there and are in no hurry to appear. This is good of course, but tough on Nicki. She is due on the 1st of September but is likely to be induced if they haven’t popped out before then around 14th August. Please pray they hang on a bit and that Nicki also hangs on in there with them as well!

News just in about our house is that is has JUST become vacant. This is a huge relief to us, although I am not sure how or when we will do the official handover from Plymouth Council so we can get the house on the market. But the best thing is that we are free to make our own choices about the house again!

We hope we will be in touch with many of you by phone over the next weeks of our furlough. We wont be able to visit but we have the telephone and Skype (with webcam) so watch out.

Love,

Kevin and Nicki

Diary Dates

• 14 August – Probable date the Twins will come
• 1 September – Official due date
• September – Kevin due back to work after furlough.

June News – Brugge, Camping and more!

Dear All,

2008-06 Link camping weekend and our Brugge weekend (click for more)

The last few weeks have been as busy as any I can remember. I’m writing this on a Tuesday evening and normally at this point I would be downstairs just finishing the first talk of the evening for Greenhouse Cafe. I have really enjoyed this series of six evenings which I run with Agnes, my colleague and Calton who is the pastor of a local church here called the Well. The teaching series had two themes of Power and Prayer. Both were deeply engaging and I think that all the participants enjoyed themselves and made new friends while also being deeply challenged.

This month Nicki also finished work. This was a great relief for her as she was getting to the point that she realised that it was the time to stop. What has been wonderful is the way others have taken up responsibility for the roles she has played. So Nicki is now taking plenty of rest and trying to make the most of a very heavy pregnancy.

During the month we managed to pack in two days of office painting too. We now have a newly painted righthand-side of the offices and a clear plan for the lefthand-side too! We got that ready for our third Open Day. We had dozens of visitors and enjoyed catching up with them and explaining a larger picture of our work (have a look at our Annual Report 2007 – 7MB). I chaired the Annual meetings and Board meetings too which we need to hold due to YWAM’s legal status here as a not-for-profit organisation in Belgium. It was a bit stressful as the final accounts only arrived at 9:10am, just in time for the 10:00am meeting. Fortunately the accounts showed a pleasing picture! The bookshop in particular has turned over a bigger profit than last year.

During this time I have been promoted too. I am now the acting National Director for YWAM Belgium. Jan-Piet, the previous Director, decided he needed to step down and it was decided in the board meeting that I would take on his role. Of course, as at the moment I am expecting a 50% increase in family numbers that is not great timing for me, however the plan is that I would do a minimal job until May 2009, when I can devote more energy to it. This was all approved, for which I am grateful. But I am pleased with my new role. I will need to study some Dutch now! More vitally I still need to delegate more of my job here to free myself up. So please pray as we work this out as a team!

In amidst this we had a number of great family visits as my family arrived over 3 weekends. Sam and Ellie also squeezed in a weekend holiday from Mummy and Daddy when they stayed with some friends. We went for a weekend in Brugge!

Our time in Brugge was wonderful. It is a hidden gem in Belgium and a truly stunning city. We joined the throng of tourists and spent our time pottering about by foot and boat. It was a refreshing time for Nicki and I and we feel a lot saner for it! The pressures have been getting to us over the months. Our house is still not vacant and thus we can’t start the sale process. This is exceptionally vexing. Also Nicki’s pregnancy is a heavy one and that has a knock on effect in our family. All the changes at work have been pressing too. The good news is that our long summer furlough break is coming, along with the twins at the end of it (and not sooner, we hope!).

We had another fabulous weekend away with The Link as we had our third camping weekend too. It was great. We chose to rent a cabin this time as Nicki was not excited about camping this year for some strange reason. It was a rich and deep time. The Link is in for lots of changes as the current Chaplain Sean is moving back to England for another Job. We will miss Sean and Helen, along with Anna and Joel greatly. It places the church into a vulnerable position but it is also thrilling to watch how God is prompting all the members into service in the church. We have a lot of support from the mother congregation too and a great chaplain there who will be overseeing things.

Our plans for our furlough have changed a lot since we (rather presumptuously) announced them. I will not be visiting Manchester or London as hoped as I will need to make a trip to Plymouth for the house. However, even this is not clear or fixed yet as there still is a tenant in the house. Instead we will be taking the furlough as a time of rest and plan on spending lots of quality time on the phone and in writing instead. This is a poor substitute for face to face time which we would prefer to have but I hope you will all understand our current circumstances.

The twins are due… well anytime really, but the best time is from beginning of August till 1st September. Please pray for Nicki’s health and that the twins hold off till then!

Lots of Love,

Kevin and Nicki

Diary Date

• 28th June – Start of Kevin’s furlough!

May news recap

Dear everyone,

I do hope that you are enjoying the beautiful weather as much as we are at the moment. We’ve had some fantastic long weekends as a result of the Belgium public holidays and been able to enjoy some much valued family time at local parks and playing a couple of long drawn out games of monopoly!

Ministry-wise things have been ticking along, with Kevin having his usual meetings with each of the ministry leaders, encouraging and helping them in leadership. He has just started another series of the Greenhouse café on Tuesday evenings. This time the themes are Power and Prayer. Kevin has also been temporarily taking on some of the responsibilities from the National Director, Jan-Piet. We mentioned Jan-Piet and Heddy in our last update following the loss of their daughter Eva-Lianne. Please continue to pray for them as a family as Jan-Piet has since lost his mother after a long battle with cancer. It is of course a very hard time for them.

Kevin had planned to visit Plymouth to finally get the house handed over to us. However, it has proved complicated with the tenant refusing to leave. We have been rather out of the loop as we have leased our house to the council for the last four years so they have been dealing with it all and we were unaware of any problem until a week before we were due to regain possession of the house on Feb 1st Things have been dragging out but we have been assured that the end of this month we should hopefully get it back! We feel that God has the house totally in his hands, we just need to ensure that the trip goes to plan and is God’s perfect timing. After doing any quick repairs/decoration/replacing carpets we are hoping to sell it quickly so please pray with us for this whole process. For all our friends in Plymouth we will let you know as soon as we know the definite dates of the trip.

2008-04-30 April and May (click for more)

I am beginning to wind down my ministry with “Alternatives” and being on the leadership team. I stopped doing the counselling for Alternatives when it became rather obvious I was pregnant. This would not have been appropriate for women to feel free to share how they were really feeling about their pregnancies! However, I have continued with the mothers and babies groups and I have been thrilled with how the women have been so excited by my pregnancy. One lady has just given birth to twin boys. Of course we have been able to talk about our situations together and I am looking forward to visiting the young twins in hospital soon. They were born premature and although they are well, they are very small, and will probably be in hospital for at least another 6 weeks. Our pregnancies are similar but it has been quite humbling to realise how much I have in terms of support, friendship and resources. She lives alone, up three flights of stairs with no lift, very little money (being a refugee) and hardly any clothes or equipment for the young babies. Of course we are trying to do all we can to help her at Alternatives but please pray for her (I have not enclosed her name for obvious reasons). I will be stepping down from the leadership of the mothers and babies groups with only 2 more to go. The fantastic news is that the timing has worked out well as Jo, one of the current Alternatives volunteers, will take on the leadership of the groups from September. After having breaks to look after children some other volunteers are also available in the Autumn which has shown us how much God’s heart is for these women and how He provides in perfect ways. Please pray for Jo has she takes on the leadership.

Currently the whole team are giving the offices a much needed fresh coat of paint, which means the offices are rather chaotic but it is proving good for team building. It will also mean that the place looks a bit better for the open day on June 7^th, 2pm-6pm. Please pray for this day (and visit if you are in Brussels!) as it will be a chance to find out more about the ministries. The bookshop will be offering special offers, Alternatives Pregnancy Crisis Centre will be open to wander through and of course the bar will be open for free drinks and entertainment. The team will be manning different displays to talk about the work and we will also have activities for children. Leading up to it the whole team will be visiting different churches to publicise the event, raising the profile of YWAM within the city.

Personally, I am getting bigger, struggling with a sinus infection and back problems. However, I am valuing the Belgium health system and go for physiotherapy twice a week at the local hospital. After doing all the stretching and exercises I get to lie on a special massage bed for 20 minutes where my back is pummelled with strong water jets. I’d recommend it to anyone with back problems!!

Thank you as ever for all your prayers.

With love, Nicki and Kevin

Dates:

• 6^th, 13^th, 20^th, 27^th, 3^rd June,10^th June: Greenhouse cafe meetings
• 14th-15^th: Visit from Stephe Mayers, Western European director
• 18^th: Publicise The open Day at St Paul’s
• 25^th: Publicise The open Day at Christian Centre
• End of May: Hopefully quick trip to Plymouth for Kev
• 29^th: Mothers and babies meeting
• 30th-1^st June: Kevin and Nicki have special weekend in Brugge!
• 2^nd June: YWAM Belgium board meeting and AGM
• 7^th June: The Open Day (2pm – 6pm)
• 12^th: Mothers and babies PLUS
• 13th-15^th: The Link camping weekend (highlight of the year!)
• 28^th June – 4^th July: health and twin permitting, Kev to visit supporters in London and Manchester areas.
• July-August: time to relax and prepare for the arrival of the twins!

Latest News…

Dear Everyone,

First of all, I’ll start with an apology that this is a little late (we’ve had a few e-mails from people wondering if we are OK!). We are doing well, the reason for the delay is that we have all been travelling until Friday. Kevin has been in Holland at the YWAM Western European Leadership Consultation (WELC) and I have been in England with the children visiting family and friends. More about our trips later.

The Easter weekend brought us some sad news this year. Eva-Lianne, the youngest daughter of Jan-Piet and Heddy, the leaders of YWAM Belgium, tragically died in a car crash in Zambia. The news has shocked and saddened all of the team, some of whom were around when she was born on the YWAM base 20 years ago. Some of you in Plymouth may remember her from an outreach team who worked with us there. Please lift Jan-Piet and Heddy, as well her sister and brother, Daphne and Raph, up to the Lord at this sad time. As a team we all attended the moving funeral service Saturday morning and were amazed at the incredible way she has touched so many people in her short life. It was estimated that 650-700 people were there to say their farewells. One quote from the service sums up Eva’s love for the Lord… “She always wanted to be closer to God, now she truly is”.

WELC 2008 and Easter pictures. Click for more

Kevin really enjoyed the WELC and appreciated the wider support from Western Europe as YWAM Belgium goes through this time of grieving. It was an exciting time when 200 people gathered to pray, discuss and seek God for the future especially in respect to new teams and initiatives. There are a number of new teams aiming to start work in lots of European cities: Nice, Lyon, Valencia, Milan, Leeds and more. The whole thrust of the WELC was to start new teams out to do evangelism and plant churches in Western Europe. Kev was busier than he had expected, leading the devotional that Jan-Piet was due to lead, leading a discussion session on communication across Europe and also a session on supporting new teams. This was the first major conference Kevin has had so much influence in, mostly from behind the scenes. In between there was lots of time to catch up with other leaders. Overall he has come back tired but encouraged.

The team also returned refreshed and hearing God for the future. On Monday we will be getting together as a team to reflect on what God is saying and to eat together. One thing we all feel is that positive change is around the corner. There needs to be some major changes in our leadership structure on the base as both myself and Sheila will be stepping down from the leadership team at the end of June. Please pray for our time together on Monday and over the next few months that God will show us the way forward for our ministries and the clear leadership team to support Kevin.

On a personal front we increasingly feel we are called here for the foreseeable future. Our initial agreement to come for 5 years will be complete this coming Christmas, but in many ways we still feel like we have just moved here and that our work is just beginning. We are hoping to sell our house in Plymouth as we have had continuous problems with tenants. We are not rushing into buying another house at the moment. We intend to remain on the YWAM base until we will outgrow our apartment! In the meantime we will be seeking God regarding the long term decisions we need to make and if we should in fact buy in Brussels. Please pray for us as a family and the many changes we will face personally in this next year. Pray particularly for Kevin to know how to prioritise his ministry especially as in the immediate future Jan-Piet will be needing more support in his YWAM Belgium role.

Finally, thank you so much for all your prayers for my health and that of the babies. As you would have probably guessed by the fact I was able to travel alone with the children, I am feeling so much better. The babies continue to grow healthily and are given me quite hefty kicks now! I had a good trip to Gloucestershire with the children and managed to see many people. Please forgive me if I didn’t manage to see you, time was just too short. Thank you particularly to all the prayers from our friends at Holy Trinity Brimscombe, it’s always good to go back there.

Thank you for all your e-mails and updates, we’ll endeavour to send personal replies in the next few days,

Much love, Nicki and Kevin

Future dates:

• April 7th: YWAM Brussels day, to pray and discuss future
• April 10th: Mothers and babies PLUS (Nicki leading discussion on talking with your child)
• April 12th: Nicki (and Sheila) will be talking at a Woman’s Aglow meeting on Alternatives and God’s heart
• April 14th-20th: Kevin possibly in Plymouth to sort out house if the council is ready to return it

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!)

Happy New Year!

Dear Everyone,

May we wish you all a wonderful 2008! We are praying for a year when we draw closer to God, knowing His ways as a whole family and we also pray the same for you. May it be a year of many blessings, surprises and joys.

We will keep this update brief as Kevin only started back yesterday after the Christmas holiday. All the staff worked together over last 2 days to do the bookshop and bar inventories which are both needed before reopening. As I was looking after the children I cooked the lunch for the whole team so it was good to have a crowd around the table! It is a great way to start the new year working as a team. The children return back to school on Monday.

Christmas 2007 (click for more photo’s)

Thank you for your prayers over the last month which I have personally appreciated. The extra visits to the UK just before my grandmother died and then again for the funeral were both physically and emotionally exhausting but I really sensed that many were praying. The funeral went far better than any of us thought it would and it was great to have relatives there who my mum hadn’t seen in 40 years (and of course I had never met!). The day after the funeral my mum travelled back with me for Christmas which was really lovely and the children’s excitement took our minds off the recent sadness. The holidays proved a lovely time for us as a family; a much needed rest.

So… what is in store for us in this month to come? Kevin heads to Heidebeek, Holland next week for communication meetings and then later on in the month we are holding a Thank You Reception for all our volunteer staff (which sustain all our ministries).

Thank you again for your prayers and for the many lovely Christmas cards that we received.

Love Nicki, Kevin, Sam, Ellie

PS If you have the time you might like to read this article written recently by the LA Times. We found it very encouraging as it sums up the reason why we are working with YWAM!

PPS The video below was made by our colleagues in YWAM England. It also sums up for us why we are YWAMers!

Future dates:
9-11th: Kevin in Holland
13th: Nicki preach at The Link
17th: Mothers and babies
25th-26th: Ladies retreat (Nicki leading worship)
27th: Kevin preach at The Link
28th: Thank you reception for volunteers
31st: Mothers and babies PLUS (Guest speaker: local Christian doctor)

December News

Dear All,

The last few weeks have been a bit up and down for us in Brussels. Nicki has been back to the UK for an emergency visit as her Grandmother was rushed to hospital with a Brain Hemorrhage. Nicki was very close to her Grandmother, who looked after her and her brother when she was growing up. She was thrilled to see her show great strength as she picked up considerably for a week and Nicki was able to say a fond goodbye to her and pray with her too. The following week her Grandmother declined and passed away. The funeral is on the 21st so Nicki will be off again to the UK for that and then will come back with her Mum, who will be spending Christmas with us here.

So you can kind of imagine how up and down it has all been with Nicki away and the uncertainty of it all. Now we know what will happen we all feel better about it. But please keep Nicki and her family in your prayers.

But we are looking forward to Christmas despite all this. We decided to get in the Christmas mood by going to the Christmas fair that happens each year through the centre of Brussels. We went ice-skating on an open air rink in the middle of Place St Catherine surrounded by hundreds of small wooden chalets smelling of Vin Chaud and Waffles! Then we went on the big wheel that gave us a wonderful view of the city. This year we had an enclosed cabin, which is great as it was FREEZING cold and raining.

Sam and Ellie loved ice skating and Sam threw himself at the ice with great gusto at least 30 or 40 times! We have a video clip here of his innovative skating technique. What was most impressive was his determination to move across the ice, however inelegant. He was amazing and got better and better on his own. Perhaps next time he might combine that with skating around the rink in the correct direction!

Christmas News. Click here for more photos

Work has been good. Morale is much improved and we were pleased to have Liam rejoin us for a time. He is now working full time in the bookshop which is a complete joy for Richt Jan who has been working so hard in the shop mostly on his own. We also welcomed April, a punk from USA who has come for a month. She has had a wonderful time of evangelism and been reaching out to the small sub-communities here in Brussels. She has been a regular visitor to a squatters bar where she spends time with the folks there and tells of the amazing ways God has worked in her life. She has made a big impact.

Nicki finished off the Mamans et Bébés year with a bumper Christmas party. Twenty mum’s came with 17 children. All the mum’s received a specially packed and decorated shoe box full of goodies. The kids at The Link had spent a couple of weeks in their Sunday school preparing the boxes. Ellie was thrilled to see the recipient of the box she decorated on the photo’s Nicki took during the day.

We hope that you have a wonderful Christmas wherever you are. Thanks for all your kind support and love over this last year. We are eager to see all the good things that God is going to do next year!

Love,

Kevin, Nicki, Sam and Ellie

Diary Dates
December

• 22nd – Carol singing outreach in Stockel square with the Link
• 23rd – Nativity and family Carol service at The Link
• 24th – Midnight Communion with The Link

January

• 2nd – Back to work with the Bookshop inventory!
• 9-11th – Kevin visiting YWAM Heidebeek, Netherlands, for leadership meetings
• 28th – Volunteers’ Thank You evening (Time to thank all the many volunteers who work with us in YWAM)