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NewCREEations Ministries December 2016 Newsletter.
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Dear Friend,

Merry Christmas from Bonnie Scotland!

Oh my goodness! SO MUCH has happened since our last newsletter!

Lisa and I wanted to send you an update this week before Christmas to let you know where we are and what all God has been doing through NewCREEations. Let’s start at the beginning.

Chris & Lisa CreeLuggage loaded for the drive to the airport.

On November 7th, we said goodbye to our home in Colorado and flew to Lynchburg, Virginia so we could spend a few days visiting my (Chris’s) family on our way to Scotland. It had been a few years since Lisa had seen my folks and we had a wonderful time with them and with my sister Katy. Then on that Friday Katy drove us to Dulles airport in Washington D.C.

From there we flew to Dublin, Ireland to change planes to head on to Birmingham, England. We were surprised that we went through the UK immigration process in Dublin. The previous time we flew into Birmingham we went through immigration control there. Regardless, all our visa paperwork was in order so we had no problems.

We flew to Birmingham because it’s near the main Andrew Wommack Ministries UK office, which is in Walsall, England. We went there first to take care of some legal requirements for our visas. While we were there we got some more training as well as other paperwork things done. Our hosts, Klaus and Ann Gruber, and the rest of the team at the ministry and Charis Bible College took excellent care of us by providing transportation for us to and from the hotel, etc.

It was great to both see old friends and meet new people. We shared with the students in the school about the vision for the new Scotland Charis Bible College location along with our journey to becoming directors. Our time in Walsall was special all around.

On to Scotland

Scottish countrysideThe beautiful Scottish countryside.

We took a train up to Lockerbie, Scotland on that Thursday. We were met in Lockerbie by our friend and classmate from Bible college, Andrew Roxburgh. While Andrew was at school in America, he met and married his American wife Sarah, who is also a Charis graduate. They now have three small children (the oldest is three years old) and live on a farm in Boreland, which is a bit outside of Lockerbie. We spent two weeks at that beautiful place in the country while we looked for a home to rent in Dumfries. It was a great time of reunion and catching up with some of our Charis family.

It was an amazing bonus to have a car waiting for us at Andrew & Sarah’s house. Friends who have returned to finish Charis Bible College in Colorado were prompted to give us their car. Other friends drove it from the South of England up to Boreland to have it waiting on us when we arrived. That car is a tremendous blessing! Thank you Kim and Celina! You will never know how much we appreciate you hearing from God and responding in faith!

Finding A Home

Wee Cree HouseWe are blessed to have found such a wonderful home to rent.

It truly does feel strange writing to you from Scotland. After all the years of preparation it’s a bit surreal to finally actually be here. Not only that, but after just two weeks in Scotland we moved into our lovely new rental home. Wow! What a God story! It literally was the second home we looked at. And it became available the day we arrived in Scotland. There was another tenant lined up for the house who happened to back out on the very day we arrived in town. (God saved the house just for us!) The house was listed online on Friday evening and Lisa saw it online on Saturday morning. We got an appointment to look at the house Monday evening and let the leasing agency know we wanted to rent it. By Friday we were approved and we moved in on the first of December. Praise the Lord!

The house has everything on our list we felt we wanted in a home and some extras on top of that. We have three bedrooms, and three toilets (quite unusual here). We were believing for two bathrooms and God provided a house with an extra toilet/sink off the kitchen. This will make life a lot easier for when we have house guests, and we expect to have many guests staying with us. A proper guest room and bathroom for them will be so wonderful. We are so excited for this house to be a blessing to others. It is already blessing us!

So Much To Learn

We’ve had a bit of a learning curve getting settled and set-up here. It took several weeks and multiple trips to the bank before we could get an account open. They require you have a permanent address and a utility company bill to prove you are living there. A lease from an estate agent (leasing company) is not good enough. Sooooo……. we couldn’t get cell phone contracts without a bankcard. You can’t get a bankcard without a bank account. You need a home with a utility bill in your name to open the bank account. But how do you get a home without a phone to arrange viewing rentals?

on the lochHere in Scotland it's a loch instead of a lake.

The whole thing seemed a bit circular to us. But we persevered and things are coming into place. Fortunately, we could get pre-paid sim cards to have phone coverage. We now have internet in the house, which also took a lot longer than we expected to set up. We are learning that things move just a little bit slower here than we’re accustomed to and that’s OK.

Establishing Our Home

We’ve had to shop for pretty much everything for our house. We were gifted a living room suite (couch, two chairs, recliner and TV stand). They were in very good shape and filled out our living room perfectly. We purchased a bed…. it’s not yet delivered but we will have it before Christmas. In the meantime some friends here loaned us a couple mattresses so we are comfy and not sleeping directly on the floor.

We needed to purchase a refrigerator, washer, and tumble dryer as well. We found some other pieces of furniture at charity shops to help fill in, such as a kitchen table and other needs. The house is taking shape. It’s funny having to literally start over from scratch. Lisa wanted to polish her shoes one night and realized we had no shoe polish. She wanted to make something in the kitchen but realized we hadn’t yet bought bowls to do that with.

Merry ChristmasMerry Christmas!

These are all minor little things to deal with, for sure. We live in a first world country so we have access to most anything we need. But when you add up the daily things that you deal with – like driving on the other side or the road, learning how to drive on roundabouts and the narrow roads, learning how to flush the toilets correctly (four trips over here and we didn’t understand the difference!), learning how to use the heating system because it works differently from what you are use too – you really do feel exhausted by the end of the day.

At the same time, our days are getting shorter here until about Christmas. The sun sets by 4:00pm and doesn’t come up until after 8:30am. We’re right at the part of the year where the days are the shortest. Then the days will get longer again soon! :) We are praising God for all the beautiful Christmas lights to enjoy for longer in the darker hours.

Diving Into Ministry

We plugged into Glen Aros Church and they have welcomed us in a BIG way. We have had so much help here on the ground. James and Khandu Joseph and their family moved here in June ahead of us after finishing college in Colorado. And we already mentioned Andrew and Sarah Roxburgh housing us for a couple weeks.

Glen Aros ChurchWe have a church home at Glen Aros Church

Combine that with our church family and we have had heaps of assistance making this transition so much easier. It’s been amazing. We shared in church the first Sunday we were here a bit about our journey, and that was a great privilege. God is doing great things in this region and He is bringing it all together bit by bit. We look forward to meeting more folks here from other churches and “stretching our tent stakes” as Isaiah 54:2 says.

Lisa and I also had an opportunity last week to share a bit in an assembly at the Dumfries High School. The Scottish government requires that schools bring in Christian pastors periodically to speak with the students. Pastor John Donnelly was scheduled to speak and brought us along to share.

You Are Part of Our Journey

All in all we are very excited to be here finally. It’s been a long journey to “get here”. Now the next phase of work begins. We are taking this time before the first of the year to get settled and enjoy our new home with our new friends and family. It is important we set aside the necessary time to get firmly established here and put things in their proper places.

The new year will bring a lot of new work. We look forward to all the ground work we will need to do to get the school up and running this next fall. But for now, we are just enjoying the fun of getting settled and learning our new home and our new country of residence.

Merry Christmas DumfriesWe are so grateful to be celebrating this Christmas from our new how in Dumfries, Scotland.

We want to thank you all for your prayers and for your financial support. Without them we would not be here, plain and simple. You have gone with us on this journey. You have allowed us to set up a new household in a new country and can be ready to minister here. The fruit we see here in Scotland is your fruit. You share the reward with us and we are forever grateful for your partnering with us in this journey.

As we look to close out 2016 and celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ we want to extend to you all our love and prayers. It’s a great time to reflect on all God has done and is about to do. We are so grateful for all of you. Your prayers, your love, your encouragement and your financial support! God is faithful!

Wishing You All a Very Merry Christmas and a Blessed and Prosperous New Year!

Love,

Lisa & Chris (from Bonnie Scotland)

P.S. Friend you have an opportunity to actively participate in what God is doing in Scotland as we establish the Bible college and see hearts transformed. The top ways to help are: prayer, monthly financial support, annual gifts or a one-time contribution. There's no gift too small. All are welcomed and appreciated.

We are currently at our half-way mark in our goal for monthly partners. NewCREEations is good, fertile, well-tilled soil that you would be planting in. Thank you for taking a moment to prayerfully consider being part of our support team. We covet your continued prayers as we continue to move forward with what God has called us to do.

We are equipped to receive multiple currencies in addition to US Dollars. You can donate securely online, just CLICK HERE. If you prefer to use a local currency other than US Dollars then click the appropriate flag on at that link. Or in the USA you can mail checks to NewCREEations Ministries, 120 N. Elm Street, Woodland Park, Colorado, 80863. NewCREEations is a 501(c)3 approved ministry and all US partnerships are tax deductible.

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NewCREEations Ministries
120 N. Elm Street
Woodland Park, CO 80863
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