Caring For Life

Giving Thanks

by Tim Parkinson

<< previous articles

Last weekend was a very busy time for us at Caring For Life. On Friday 12th September we were pleased to host a luncheon where our Patron, Her Royal Highness The Countess of Wessex came to officially open the 'New Adult Learning and Arts Centre' and our 'People and Animals Meeting' building.

Our Patron's visit was fantastic. After looking around the new centre, she revealed two new plaques officially opening the new facilities. A luncheon was then held with invited guests from various trusts, supporters and volunteers. Our own staff and young people were also able to enjoy the luncheon with our Patron.

The day was completed when a group from our drama project performed some songs from Lloyd Webber's great, “Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat.”

At Caring For Life, we have all come to regard our Patron with the greatest affection, and we really sensed that after this visit our indebtedness to, and our affection for her was deepened. We do pray regularly for our Patron and her family, and hope we shall see her again soon.

Our Supporters Day was also a great success. We were pleased to see a large number of supporters descend on the farm from as far away as Cornwall, Northern Ireland and even Jersey. We were greatly encouraged to see the reaction to our new buildings, and as always we were greatly challenged by the faithful prayer and financial support of those who came.

Our Royal Visit was followed by our Supporters Day Harvest Thanksgiving Service when we opened our doors again to our faithful supporters. They were able to come and look around our new 'fantastic facilities', and view all the projects that we run at Crag House Farm.

Both days were brilliant. For many weeks now Kate and David have been praying for good weather, and we can and did give praise to God for giving us two amazing days of weather amidst such a wet summer.

The days however were tinged with sadness. For the first time in Caring For Life's history Esther Smith, co-founder of Caring For Life who has been far from well for some weeks now, was unable to be there because of her health. She was incredibly sad to miss out on these occasions, and we are all praying very much for her speedy recovery.

On hearing that Esther was in hospital, the Countess of Wessex, said that if Esther would like her to, she would really like to make a un-scheduled stop and go to the hospital to see Esther. Esther was thrilled and the visit was a huge encouragement to Esther at a very difficult time.

As we look at the last few weeks, we are aware that a huge amount of hard work was done by staff, by those in our care and by volunteers to make the two days such great success. We are so grateful to all those who worked so hard.

As we look to the future, we really do not know what lies ahead but we are aware that the Lord has been richly blessing this work. He is here! He is with us!

The success of our work is not being achieved simply because of the work that we are endeavoring to do, but because we have the faithful support of many hundreds, indeed thousands of people, who want to see people come to faith in Christ, and see broken lives find a peace.

But above all, the success we see, we see because God has been and we believe still is very much with us.