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House for Sale!! But after renovations, we didn’t sell!! (Story inside)

 

READY FOR WAR                


 
 

The Pandemic has faded from the news of the day,
And Christmas is back once again;
But inflation, high prices are now here to stay,
The result of a war in Ukraine!!

So nations have now ramped up spending on arms,
The race is now on for the world
To build military power to respond to alarms,
And be ready for war to unfold.

These are the signs that as Christmas comes round,
We are one more year close to the day,
As when our Lord comes and we meet in the clouds,
And He takes us to heaven to stay.





 

Summary

This year has been a stay-at-home year for us.  In fact, we sold our caravan and Isuzu 4WD in January, so we are back to one smaller Kia Cerrato. We then started on a renovation that was to last much longer than anticipated. (See Renovations below). We did have one week off at Melody and Simon’s Shelly Beach unit in March.

A nice independent living unit became available at the Plains Retirement Village in April so we paid a deposit, entered into a contract, and put our house on the market in June. But because of the Reserve Bank’s increasing cash rate, the market went pear shaped and we didn’t sell. We thank our  loving Lord for good health, and now plan to wait for His time to try again.

Ruth’s Aunty Nancy Pratt moved from Peninsula Palms to a retirement village in Yackandandah, Victoria to be nearer to family, following the passing of her son and Ruth’s cousin, Rodney.

In November, Russ took the memorial service for our dear friend of many years, Dr Tony Paul,  Queensland’s  longest serving Flying Sur-

  

geon. Russ was pilot for the Flying Surgeon Service in Longreach for five years, and it was during those years Tony delivered our daughter Joy, by caesarean. Dr Tony and his dear wife, Margaret, were also guests at Joy’s wedding.

For more of our news, see Family on the back page. We pray that you all, our special family and friends, keep well, and we wish you a very special and happy Christmas, and pray for God’s rich blessings in the New Year.  Love, Russ and Ruth...

Renovations
 

When we bought our house 13 years ago, a pest inspection found no problems, but we always felt the back bedroom needed a makeover.  Russ started on the ceiling and found evidence of past termite activity.  So he kept on removing wall cladding to find the whole room had to have major ceiling and wall

  

framing repairs.

Kev Bray, a very good friend from VACC church with building expertise, gave Russ generous and valuable help.  The cladding and plastering was done by a professional plasterer, the electrical work by another tradie from VACC, and we did the painting.


Above: Demolition stage                Below: The workers and the finished bedroom



Other Pictures from the Year





Christmas last year was on Boxing Day

In January we sold both our caravan and then our car



Ruth's Birthday

Farewell for Aunty Nancy



Mother's Day

The grandparents at the twins’ and Amy’s birthdays—all on the same day!!



Joy's Birthday

 

Family News

With three of our grandchildren now in their twenties, four in their late teens, and the twins to become teenagers next year, these are busy times for our two young families!!

Three more were baptised this year (pics below), Suey graduated from Somerville House and has accepted a scholarship to attend college in the USA leaving early January, and Nat graduated from QUT with Bachelor of Business. Jake started part time with Gem Wealth and Holly was elected to be girl captain at Brisbane Christian College next year.

The older ones have all been helping with CYC camps as leaders and “Kids Games” at VACC, as well as being involved in various young adults camps and other young people’s events.

Ben and Joy abandoned their plans for renovations of their Yeronga house and recently bought yet another house in Holland Park West. It is considerably closer to Ben’s Brisbane office  for Gem Wealth.    This is their

  

third house since moving to Brisbane four years ago!!

It is a “Keanalley Christmas” this year and Sime and Mel are kindly hosting us all at their place for the event. Melody has been enjoying the challenging but rewarding prison ministry as a prison chaplain.

We have so much to be thankful for, but we never cease to pray for each member of our two young families a number of times a day.


Above: Nat the graduate with sister, Katie

Below: Baptisms from left, Holly, Rebekah, and Jake







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