Dear friends and family. Thank you for keeping in touch. It is so good to receive your news. We have celebrated our Golden wedding in two stages. In June 2015 while David , Zea and Jasmine were visiting from India where they live, we enjoyed a get together with many of Peter’s relatives. This year (our actual Golden Wedding year), we had the celebration with Agnes’s relatives, which included Agnes’s sister Ruth and her husband Diego Frisch from Uruguay. Both Celebrations were lovely occasions , we were so blessed. You may remember that in December 2015 many parts of northern England were flooded, including parts of Kendal and our Sandylands church.. We managed to get back into the church in early July, Sadly some of the people and businesses have still not been able to return. It is so good that the church was able to reach out in very tangible ways demonstrating Gods love. People are very grateful that we have enjoyed a lovely Autumn with less rain but many people are fearful that similar flooding could occur again as the promised flood alleviation schemes are not set to start until 2018. Our ten grandchildren continue to grow up quickly, but, as David’s Zea and Jasmine are in India , Anne and Simon’s Nathaniel , Gracie and Mercia in Leicestershire, Corrie in London at Dance College, Adell and Chris’s Ellita, Reuben,Ethan and Lenna are in Leeds, we do not see them as much as we would like. Those of us in England will however be together one day at Christmas. For us time passes more and more quickly!!or, maybe it is us who are slower, it takes longer to do things , but we count our blessings which are many. Peters turn now. This year in addition to attending a usual Christian conference I have been on holiday twice. In the summer I stayed in a youth hostel near Whitby Abbey in North East Yorkshire where I always feel at home. In September I went to Austria by bus, the bus part not to be repeated as it involved two nights and a day travelling each way. However, I really enjoyed Austria again. I had visited it twice during my national service time when stationed in Germany in the British army of the Rhine. I am delighted that in February Agnes will join me on an 8 day holiday in Malta, to have some sun and sea after the winter here. The two E books I have been struggling to write for a long time are at last finished and available free to download from peterstoreybooks The titles are “Soil Improvement” and “Soil and Water” –subtitle “the worlds most important resources how to improve and conserve them .“ We are getting more creaky and I Peter have had a bad cold on and off since June which is a nuisance and wearing but I normally swim about 500 meters each week. We go on a gentle strollers walking group one week about an hours walk and the other week a strollers group about 3-3.5 miles. We are so blessed in having such a variety of countryside around us. so the walks are always interesting. Kendal is now on the edge of the new combined Yorkshire dales and Lake district national park. About 20 minutes from Windermere or about 20 minutes from Sedbergh or Kirkby Lonsdale or Agness family home in Raisbeck near Orton all are in the Dales part We live 200 yards from woods lining the river Kent from which Kendal (Kent dale) gets its name, and fields of cattle and sheep on the other side of the river. Kendal is a nice sized town with most of what we need , our church is at the opposite outskirts but still only fifteen minutes by bike ten by car. Our church is a friendly growing church, and most of the local churches increasingly work together, for instance over the flood relief, and for the winter shelter for rough sleepers. At this trouble time with so much suffering in the world:- May the spirit and the message of Christmas bring you Peace, The gladness of Christmas give you Hope, the warmth of Christmas grant you Love. Love from Peter and Agnes. *Mr. Peter and Mrs Agnes Storey are former missionaries from the URC |