Ruth with all (at the time) nine grandchildren at her birthday breakfast this year

Our tenth grandchild, Amy Fleurbaix McHugh

                  TIDINGS OF GREAT JOY

But He could not be held by death,
He rose, and reigns on high,
He'll come again, and not by stealth,
And now, the time is nigh.

Firstly

This is not a “Prayer Newsletter”, but rather a personal Christmas letter to you, our family and friends.

Many who do not have email access missed our annual communication last year, so we decided to publish our news once again with a few pics to keep in touch. We have kept the same format. Please accept our apologies for our not posting anything at Christmas time last year!!

As for Thailand, briefly, after protracted delays and red tape, our Bangkok church finally received building approval for a new church building!! Building is now underway.

There have been baptisms during the year and some that we have prayed for over many years have accepted the Lord. We are grateful for your continued prayer support for the work in Thailand.

Finally,  on  29th  April  this  year  the  Thailand

Director of Campus Crusade for Christ, Ajarn Yuttasak Sirikul, a very dear friend of ours and a spiritual giant of the Lord’s work in Thailand, widely known and respected amongst all Thai leaders, was called home to be with His Lord, following a heart attack. We have often mentioned him in our past newsletters.

RAAF Reunion

Russ joined the RAAF January 1956 and to celebrate the 60th Anniversary 30 old colleagues and their wives went on a 3 night cruise on the “Carnival Spirit” cruise ship leaving from Sydney harbour at Easter time this year. (For the 50th Anniversary we

had 67 colleagues and their wives for the event.)

We towed our caravan down to Sydney, visiting old friends on the way, and parking at Ruth’s cousin’s place in Sydney while on the cruise.

Our van is set up for “free camping” with solar panels, a 240 volt inverter and a tank in the car for transporting water to the van. We were very grateful to our friends for allowing us to park on their properties.

Breakfast time at Macksville

Ruth looks like a seasoned tourist

The Year in Pictures

Russ standing on his homemade work platform fixing the last slat (see Other News below)

Hitching up for the next trip

Above from Left: Children's table at a family holiday;  Holly and Melody;  Rebekah and Susan;  Natalie's baptism (2015)

Above Left: Melody and Ruth at a Sewco event         Above Centre & Right: Grandparents' Day - Melody jnr, Victoria & Philippa

AAHoF Induction:  The Induction Dinner was held in a hangar

(See Other News below)

Each table had a model of some aircraft in the centre

Other News

Perhaps the most significant news of the year is the arrival of a surprise bundle of joy—Amy Fleurbaix McHugh was born at 6pm on 27th October, so sharing the same birthday as the twins!!

Half of our ten grandchildren will be in Middle School or High School next year, and the same five will all be teenagers from July. How the years roll around!!

We continue to change/extend our little home. Last year we had the lounge widened, we completed the concreting around the carport and early this year, we installed slats on all sides of our carport. Ruth proved how handy she is as a builders labourer.

We had planned an extended caravan trip for a couple of months in spring, but in June, Russ was diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer called “Hairy Cell Leukaemia”. We are thankful to our wonderful Lord that this form is very treatable, and after chemo treatment in July, a bone marrow biopsy in August confirmed that the chemo was completely successful.

Russ’s early airline, Bush Pilots Airways was inducted into the Australian Aviation Hall of Fame so we flew down to Wagga for the induction gala dinner at Temora in November. We caught up with old colleagues we hadn’t seen for 30 years!!

God bless and love from us both,

Russ and Ruth