If you're like me, after being on holiday for a couple of weeks coming back to work feeling refreshed and thinking that everything will have changed. But in most cases it's likely to be the person on holiday that feels a bit more refreshed and rested than anything else that may have changed.

That can't be said for anyone away from Caring For Life for any length of time, be it a week, a fortnight, a month, and most definitely a year!

I just got back from having a break in Devon, and on my return have discovered many changes.

A new schedule of daytime events has been planned for those in our care. With the expansion of the new arts and learning centre, we will be able to have many more people come to the farm and enjoy the host of projects we run. This will also include many of those whom we care for through our Housing Support Team, who for a long time have wanted to integrate into farm projects, but have been unable to because of the available spaces on the projects.

I didn't expect to have seen such a radical change with the new access whilst away. I returned to the farm on the lane I have done for the last 28 years, to be greeted by the foundations of a new road. It was a very strange experience to see this road leading straight down to the main road, avoiding all the small holdings that we will soon not need to pass. Even though the access isn't completed, it was nevertheless an amazing change.

This was only in a couple of weeks. But there was something that struck me whilst I saw these changes. Although there are lots of changes that we see very clearly happening, be it with the site, or with the way that projects run, sometimes its easy to miss the changes that takes place in the hearts and lives of those we care for, especially when we see them day to day.

We sometimes need to take a step back to see this transformation and when we do, it can be amazing. People come to us broken, who perhaps had been abused in vile ways since childhood, and never known how to receive and give love. And then after years of love, friendship and having provided the opportunity to build self-confidence, dignity and respect, we see dramatic changes, but so often in the smallest of steps.

It is often our faithful supporters who come and visit us each year that notice these changes. I have often spoken with people who have commented on how much one of those we care for has changed. It is at this point that I reflect and then realize just how far these wonderful trophies of grace that God has entrusted to us have come.

Over this last year the farm site has changed in ways those of us who have lived and worked here from the early days could only have dreamt of. We are seeing things happen all the time.

However the most wonderfully amazing thing that we see here at Caring For Life are not the building changes, or ways in which projects work. The thing that makes Caring For Life so special is the way that we are able to see God transform the hearts and minds of our extended family. We have seen many people come to faith in Jesus, and we hope and pray that many more turn to Him in the future.