The Greens

Hello once again to the Green’s annual newsletter. We’ve not had much time for reflection on the year we have had. At a guess, we’d say it was mostly good, but without anything particularly major to mark the passing of 2010. A year for chugging on and continuing.

As 2010 comes to a conclusion, Bethya is nearly six years old, Nathanael is now four and Josiah is a cheeky two and a half.

Bethya is now in her second year of schooling and very much enjoying her education. She has been doing very well in her class, and is increasingly able to read and decipher her parents’ conversation as they spell things out to avoid the kids knowing what they are talking about. A new code is now needed! Dave may have to learn sign language.

Bethya remains very interested in her dancing and ballet and has been taking it to the next level. She took part in her ballet school’s theatre production at the Brooke in Chatham earlier this year and then was asked to represent the school as part of a group dance – one of only two in her age group with a number of older girls. The group came first (out of one entrant) in the resulting competition and then subsequently renewed the dance in the Christmas spectacular as well. Quite apart from the lessons each week, she continues to prance around at the front of church every Sunday morning, although she has now graduated a group to PJ Gang with the 5-11 year olds for Sunday school.

Nathanael is now a very solid four. He goes to pre-school each weekday morning and spends his afternoons chilling out while his brother sleeps. For Nathanael, life revolves around football (still with Socatots with Dave on a Monday), Transformers and (lately) Star Wars. Dave’s attempts earlier in the year to convert Nathanael failed miserably but, almost of his own accord, Nate has become a fan of Obi-Wan and all the rest. Needless to say, his very proud dad is extremely supportive of his latest interest and was glad to be a resident expert this Christmas when it came to the choosing of the boy’s first lightsaber… a vital moment in the life of any future jedi.

Josiah is becoming (or has become) a cheeky charmer. Impossible to discipline without smiling or laughing, he is still fearless and mischievous – jumping off stuff, launching himself off anything, and all with the biggest of smiles. He is talking really well – far more than some of his fellow two year olds – no doubt due to his brother and sister’s almost constant presence. Josiah enjoys almost anything his brother and sister are doing, loves swinging a lightsaber and also has a sweet spot for his train track and (recently acquired) race-car stunt track.

Kerry’s life is probably the most hectic of us all. As well as being a full-time mum to our three delightful children, she’s getting more involved in both our church and the local community with the school-gate mums and dads. She continues her Avon lady business and seems to know all sorts of people around the local community with her usual friendly ease.

At the end of last year, Dave’s Vicar left for a new parish and so in 2010, Dave’s year has been dominated by covering the resulting vacancy. While very busy, it has also been a great year to learn and gain experience while he ‘pretended’ to be a Vicar for all the way through the year until November. The church has done well and grown a little bit on Dave’s watch and as the year closes, the new Vicar is now in place enabling Dave to return to his ‘normal’ role as a Curate.

The time is drawing near for us to consider our next step since Dave technically is able to finish his curacy anytime from the summer of 2011 onwards. Between then and the following summer, we will probably have moved parish and moved house so that Dave’s future as a Vicar can take the next step. It’s a scary thought that, by this time next year, we may well have moved or at least know where we are heading. As yet, we have no news on that or inkling of where we might end up but we’ll be sure to try and update this site when we know more.

If you want to see some photos from our year, we’ve added a new gallery on the website. If you want to see and hear more from us regularly online, then both Dave and Kerry are on Facebook and taking friend requests!

So that’s us in 2010. If you find yourself near Chatham, do come and say hi. We’d love to see family and friends, whether from near or far.

Hello all those who stop by this website either semi-regularly or once a year to check out the Green’s eighth annual newsletter! Its to our great disappointment and shame that we haven’t updated this website since this time last year but it probably says a great deal about the kind of year we have had and the busy-ness that we find ourselves both enjoying and hating (at different times)!

As 2009 comes to a conclusion, Bethya is (more…)

Hello all those who stop by this website either semi-regularly or once a year to check out the Green’s seventh annual newsletter. We can’t quite believe that it’s seven years since we started doing these annual reviews and certainly 2008 is a year with enough news to rival some of our best and most packed twelve months in living memory.

The biggest news of the year was, of course, the birth of young Josiah who was born (more…)

Christmas greetings to regular readers of our website or those who just pop by once a year to catch up on all our news! Humble apologies for the fact that this newsletter is somewhat delayed. Usually we try to get it done in good time for Christmas but, for various reasons, that hasn’t happened. We hope we’ve caught you in time anyway with this newsletter and some photos.

2007 has seen the Green family growing and developing. Most notably with Bethya and Nathanael seemingly growing and changing by the day. Bethya will shortly celebrate her third birthday and is counting down the bedtimes as we write. While she still has her moments, the terrible two’s seem to have been corralled and she’s a happy, thriving and very funny little girl. (more…)

This is just a brief update to announce that I’ve just heard that I passed my ‘Certificate in Christian Theology’ qualification ‘with distinction’ at the end of my first year here in Cambridge at Ridley Hall.

I am only doing the first year of this BA course which gives me a Certificate, before I move on to the Masters programme next year. However, I just wanted to announce what I got. Overall through the year, I averaged a First with seven out of nine essays getting 70% or more and the other two getting above 60%.

Of course, being here at Ridley isn’t primarily about the academic marks – it’s about being prepared to exercise ordained ministry… but even so, we were chuffed.