Dear Friends,
This last year has been a faith stretching journey for us. In February we changed from CMS Mission partners to CMS Mission associates. This felt quite a significant step for us, we have felt so blessed and cared for by CMS over recent years (and SAMS previously). For over fifteen years Ruth has either been preparing to go abroad or living abroad, and for all of Max’s lifetime we have been in a state of transition; so it has been quite an adjustment staying put with no future plans to move!
A lot has happened in the last six months. We have settled into a new home which is a real blessing. The new missional business ‘Leap Design’ is beginning to take form. You can see the website here: www.leap.design There are several churches showing interest in both architectural and project management support. Efraim has been using his extensive experience from Walmart to develop a community survey tool which helps churches match their gifts and interests with the needs of the local community. In April, Efraim and Kelvin were invited to a European church leader’s conference in Athens which was a real blessing and provided them with some good contacts.
Please do pray for them as they continue to establish this business which has the potential to have a real strategic impact on the mission of local churches. Pray for marketing and wisdom with how to manage the workload, also pray that it becomes financially self-sustaining soon!
Ruth started her part-time job as a Health Visitor in January. It has been quite overwhelming getting to grips with the job again. In 13 years both the NHS and Ruth have changed a lot! She is now really enjoying it, she feels particularly blessed to have such an international caseload in High Wycombe. Most days she feels like she has travelled the world, visiting people from such a wide variety of countries. She is glad of her satnav to find her way around the High Wycombe, but has chuckled remembering home visits in the slums of Recife, Brazil which were much harder to reach. One particularly memorable visit involved ‘turning right at the blue fence and then left after the fat women’ The ‘fat women’ was in hospital so Ruth was confused by the instructions, but on asking local residents the bizarre local point of reference was well-known and she quickly found the house she was looking for!
Ruth and Efraim continue to support the toddler group in Thame run by our church, fortunately our new home has a garage so we have been able to continue storing all the toys between weekly sessions. Ruth also continues with the breastfeeding group in Thame and had the privilege of leading an hour’s seminar at a regional breastfeeding conference in April. Last month Ruth enjoyed a Parish Nursing study day, which was the final part of the induction training. She would appreciate your prayers for wisdom in how to take this forward in the future.
Max is growing up so fast. Learning to read and write and loving school with lots of friends. He particularly enjoys the afterschool club which he attends twice a week.
Thank you so much for your prayers and ongoing support. Thank you also to those of you who have continued to support us financially during this somewhat precarious time of transition. These are faith stretching times for us, the name of the business ‘Leap’ is in part linked to our own sense of taking a Leap in Faith and the fact that most churches embarking on building projects also have to take big leaps of faith!
Efraim, Ruth and Max
This last year has been a faith stretching journey for us. In February we changed from CMS Mission partners to CMS Mission associates. This felt quite a significant step for us, we have felt so blessed and cared for by CMS over recent years (and SAMS previously). For over fifteen years Ruth has either been preparing to go abroad or living abroad, and for all of Max’s lifetime we have been in a state of transition; so it has been quite an adjustment staying put with no future plans to move!
A lot has happened in the last six months. We have settled into a new home which is a real blessing. The new missional business ‘Leap Design’ is beginning to take form. You can see the website here: www.leap.design There are several churches showing interest in both architectural and project management support. Efraim has been using his extensive experience from Walmart to develop a community survey tool which helps churches match their gifts and interests with the needs of the local community. In April, Efraim and Kelvin were invited to a European church leader’s conference in Athens which was a real blessing and provided them with some good contacts.
Please do pray for them as they continue to establish this business which has the potential to have a real strategic impact on the mission of local churches. Pray for marketing and wisdom with how to manage the workload, also pray that it becomes financially self-sustaining soon!
Ruth started her part-time job as a Health Visitor in January. It has been quite overwhelming getting to grips with the job again. In 13 years both the NHS and Ruth have changed a lot! She is now really enjoying it, she feels particularly blessed to have such an international caseload in High Wycombe. Most days she feels like she has travelled the world, visiting people from such a wide variety of countries. She is glad of her satnav to find her way around the High Wycombe, but has chuckled remembering home visits in the slums of Recife, Brazil which were much harder to reach. One particularly memorable visit involved ‘turning right at the blue fence and then left after the fat women’ The ‘fat women’ was in hospital so Ruth was confused by the instructions, but on asking local residents the bizarre local point of reference was well-known and she quickly found the house she was looking for!
Ruth and Efraim continue to support the toddler group in Thame run by our church, fortunately our new home has a garage so we have been able to continue storing all the toys between weekly sessions. Ruth also continues with the breastfeeding group in Thame and had the privilege of leading an hour’s seminar at a regional breastfeeding conference in April. Last month Ruth enjoyed a Parish Nursing study day, which was the final part of the induction training. She would appreciate your prayers for wisdom in how to take this forward in the future.
Max is growing up so fast. Learning to read and write and loving school with lots of friends. He particularly enjoys the afterschool club which he attends twice a week.
Thank you so much for your prayers and ongoing support. Thank you also to those of you who have continued to support us financially during this somewhat precarious time of transition. These are faith stretching times for us, the name of the business ‘Leap’ is in part linked to our own sense of taking a Leap in Faith and the fact that most churches embarking on building projects also have to take big leaps of faith!
Efraim, Ruth and Max