David & Ullie Reid  

Costa del Sol, España

                                                                                                                                         February 27, 2007

Dear Jack and Sue,

            Greetings, well I am finally sitting down to write my New Year’s letter.  As you can see from the date, it really is high time.  As usual time waits for no one.  Last year David and I celebrated our 25^th wedding anniversary and we could just not believe it.  Our song for the wedding was “My times are in Your hands” and that has truly been the case.  He has been so faithful and we know that will continue to be the story.

            Our lives run along a fairly established routine, so this won’t be a vastly exciting letter to read.  David continues to teach in the church, which causes him to study a lot and be stretched. At the moment he is doing a series called “This is that” which basically shows the continuity of the Old Testament into the New and we are looking at all the prophecies of Christ’s first coming in the OT.  It is so interesting and we have gone off on a couple of tangents. (Like the Christmas star and Daniel and why did the wise men know where to go?  From there we had a mini series on the Shechinah glory.

The other elder is a full time missionary and has to do a lot of travel as he is in charge of a vast field.  When he is around they take it in turns for Sundays and Bible Studies.  At the moment David is managing to work 4 days on the pianos and keep Wednesdays free to study and prepare for the evenings Bible Study.

            I had a bit of a different summer this year as I went to Canada to see my mom for 3 weeks.  We had a great time clearing out all her accumulated stuff.  She knew pretty well what she wanted to do but just could not face tackling the job alone.  After many trips to the Charity stores, she is now so much lighter.  When the time comes that she wants to sell up and move somewhere smaller, she will be able to do so without having to sort out everything first.  I think it must get more difficult as you get older.  I am a “chucker” and so quite happily held open the big black garbage bags and said “Get rid of it.”  The weather was absolutely beautiful the whole time that I was away.  The men folk managed beautifully without me, so….  An added bonus was that upon my return our non-lap cat has decided that maybe it is a good thing to be a lap cat after all.  We are still benefiting from that.  I am going to be trying out something new next week.  Something that has always appealed to me.  A cooking class.  This will be a small group in a private home.  There are 4 sessions.  It should be fun and a chance to mix with some non-believers.

            Christian has now got his apartment as good as finished.  There is just a wee bit of painting to do.  So he sort of has one foot in both camps.  We keep urging him to take his stuff (junk), as he has more room than we do, but make it clear it is not him we are trying to get rid of.  There has been no wedding date fixed yet, but I reckon it won’t be too long in future.

            About a year ago, Andrew decided that he didn’t want to work as a chef after all.  The hours were too antisocial and he didn’t want to be shouted at all the time.  He reckons that what he learned will be just as good for him personally and that it is not something that he will forget.  So much to our surprise he started working with a firm that does pool liners. This is a heavy plastic lining which is attached to a metal frame or over an existing tiled pool in order to waterproof it.  It is very heavy physical work and he just loves it.  I never would have thought it.  At the moment he is also working on getting his driving licence.

            Neither of the boys is interested in going to church at all.  However, it is a decision that they have to make for themselves, so we do not force the gospel down their throats.  We trust that the Lord will take what has been sown in them and bring it to fruition one day.  Jesus has to be their own reality for it to be valid.  As I have said on so many occasions.  He was able to get through to us, and so He is able to get through to them.

            At the beginning of December we took the plunge and had our main bathroom retiled.  It was a huge job with a lot of mess, but one thing led to another and the whole upstairs was retiled.  We put down a light coloured tile and it makes such a difference.  Now of course the little bathroom will also have to be done, as it does look rather shabby now. That is the trouble, when you spruce one area up; it just shows up the rest of house.

            At the end of May David will be going to Israel again.  As you may remember he has already been twice and seen all the typical tour places.  He still wanted to see some other not so well known sites, so when a brochure arrived with all those places in he jumped at it.  The leader of the group is Dwight Pryor, a fantastic bible teacher that we have listened to for many years.  He is very excited about it.  Around the same time my mom will come to visit, so I am very happy to stay here.

May the Lord bless you both and continue to give you His joy, Love Ullie and David and the boys