This is something I never thought I would find myself doing, but due to complete lack of organisation we have not managed to send many Christmas cards this year so I thought I would jot down a few events that have happened to The Van Schalkwyks over the last 12 months.
We cannot quite believe that we've now been in Plymouth for just over 2 years, it's been eventful and not without challenge but we're secure in the knowledge that God called us here so we're in the best possible place that we can be. I think the thing that we all found toughest was missing friends and family, even though they are just an hour up the road it's just not the same!
Plymouth city itself is probably one of the most underrated cities in the country, it has so much going for it. This is one of our favourite places for coffee.We are blessed to live so close to the sea and the moors and enjoy walking the coast path and kayaking out around Plymouth Sound (you just have to be careful of the submarines!)
We enjoyed a fantastic holiday to Cornwall at Easter, the weather was amazing and the accommodation was lovely too. We stayed in a farmhouse just outside of Hayle and enjoyed train rides along the coast to St Ives, surfing, walking, golfing and lots and lots of Cornish produce.We all really enjoyed the hot tub in the garden, Grant's still trying to convince me that we should get one.
Chloe is growing into a beautiful young lady, she celebrated her 13th birthday in April and is currently in Year 9. She enjoys school and has made some really great friends who now come along to the Friday night youth that the church runs. History, French and Science are her favourite subjects and ploughs through books like nobodies business. She is also becoming a great little cook and we have enjoyed sampling the delicious food she has made for us and others. She enjoyed camping with the youth at a christian event called Newday back in July. They all decided to travel by National Express to the event which is in Norfolk. After something like a 15 hour bus journey they arrived and spent the week with several thousand other teenagers growing in their understanding and knowledge of God. A painful knee condition that she suffered with and had been seeing the physio at derriford hospital for every other week was healed after she went forward for prayer, Praise God! They also enjoyed water fights, thunder and lightening storms accompanied by copious amounts of rain on one of the days and lack of sleep due to much chatting etc, etc!!
Joel is now 9. He enjoys music, art, sport and cooking. He has drum lessons at school but has taught himself guitar after Grant showed him the basics he plays both in the school orchestra and is also involved in the school choir. As I'm writing this he and Grant are out on a bike ride along the Plym trail, I'm sure they will both come back covered in mud and a little soggy, (its raining here). He is becoming quite a comedian and has us in fits of laughter quite a lot of the time. He still really misses not being able to just pop up to the farm and help Grandad out as much as we used to and is certain he will move back when he's old enough!
Grant and I enjoy our days off on Mondays and have recently enjoyed several walks along the coast path around Wembury, it's offers really stunning views. I have recently started work again, just a couple days a week for a Fair Trade Company
www.booenterprise.com and am loving all the new challenges! Grant has enjoyed trips to Portugal and will be off to Zambia for a week or so next year to serve the churches and the team there. Church is growing and we are building some wonderful friendships.
I think I'll leave it there. We send you much love and hope that you enjoy a wonderful Christmas and a blessed New Year
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