family time in Bristol

catching up with Arron on Skype!

after our week in Buckinghamshire we made the two hour trip down the M4 motorway to spend five days with our eldest son, Chris, his wife and our three wonderful little Grandchildren in Bristol.

the journey down was uneventful other than the fact that we are extremely grateful to our friends Andy and Val for lending us their little Vauxhall Corsa for the duration of our stay which is a true blessing and one that means that we are able to make these types of trips up and down this green and pleasant land.

returning boot campers!

one thing that we have so appreciated during our time serving in South Africa over the last six years is the fact that we have been able to maintain and even create a relationship between ourselves and the Grandchildren who have all been born since we moved out. much of this could be due to the fact that we have the ability to Skype call as and when we feel the need but we do believe that God has held our family and therefore those relationships which we feel extremely blessed by.

busy wittlers

it's funny being grandparents as you really don't have to do anything to feel very very special, both Alfie and Eli are boys with different personalities, Alfie slightly quieter and defiantly the more sporty, with Eli maybe more adventurous with very little worry about his own safety. Honor is a busy little 15 month year old baby girl who is into everything and has ants in her pants. to walk into their lives every year or so has been amazing and we feel accepted the moment we walk through the door.

capturing precious moments.

Chris and Claire are creative and attentive parents with the children's needs at the forefront of their minds and once again it was great to see them working together to make their children's lives all the more exciting with a broad outlook on life.

We enjoyed many walks and especially enjoyed the one in Leigh Woods which sits above the world famous Clifton Suspension Bridge, which is based on a design by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and opened in 1864. Chris bought along the boys adventure bags which contained bug collecting pots, plastic microscopes, as well as string and a pen knife to make bows and arrows to enable us to play in the forest.

Chris runs his own business which includes 'boot camp's' which take place in the park which sits in Victoria Square where they rent a flat, as it was school holidays Maz joined Claire and the boys for a 45 minute session of hardcore work out, I had the honour of looking after Honor, who thankfully slept peacefully for the whole time!

a braai or a bbq?

Undeterred by the weather we ventured out onto the balcony of the flat, a home where the great, if not contentious, English cricketer W.G Grace lived in between 1894-1896, and enjoyed a largely South African style BBQ where we cooked up some Boerewors (a traditional sausage made from beef with lamb or pork instead of the wholly only pork which is the norm in England), bought from the Clifton Village Butchers local butcher who comes from somewhere near Johannesburg. Eli loves Biltong so we bought him a packet and we had a feel of our life in South Africa with all the other familiar products that the store sells.

During the week we also had chance to spend a day with our mentor at his home in Keynsham, once again the time we spend with Mal is the highlight of any trip home and with his helping set out and encouragement thought around our sabbatical time has certainly been key both now and prior to us moving out to set up the Village of Hope.

home of w.g grace

We also had the pleasure of meeting up with a volunteer who spent three months with us last year, Katie lives just down the road from Chris and Claire and we enjoyed an evening with her and her parents in their lovely home, it was great to hear about her trip to Bethel in Redding California where she hopes to return in the autumn.

It was sad to say goodbye on Saturday morning but to know that we weren't rushing back to airport but would be seeing them again for Honor's dedication in a few weeks made the leaving a little easier.