Where do I begin?

2008 was for Elaine and I a year of journeys - by minibus to Albania to visit Ruth & Maki, by train to Paris, by plane to Prague, and finally to Albania again by plane for the marriage of Miriam and Besmir. We returned from there early December with a sense of a blank canvas before us, wondering what God would wish to write there - where would our journey now take us, with all four children established on their own futures. We did not expect to have that journey laid out for us by three rapid-succession hospital visits, that resulted for David in a pre-Christmas diagnosis of bowel cancer that had also spread to the liver. The doctors would provide help on the journey, but had no control over the final destination.

We start to write these pages one month later, very conscious of a wide network of friends who would wish to pray intelligently, and the knowledge that keeping contact with such is just one of the extra 'bits of baggage' that could weigh us down. So we will try to express here from time to time facts, feelings, frustrations, but above all, faith. God has filled our lives to this day with His story, which he has personalised until the tears roll down our cheeks. No one reading these lines is unaware of King David's unequivocal boast - "yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me, Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me". May God enable us to colour in what that looks like in the 21st century, and guide you in prayer and support. Dave