Welcome Levi!
We went to visit our friends, Dave and Anna, in Pontypool. They just welcomed their little boy, Levi, into the world about a week ago. He's so cute, y'all. All 5 pounds of him! And he has more hair than Bailey. :)We met Dave and Anna not long after moving to Pontypool in 2002. I remember our first meeting. They were engaged, and we met them over at Dave's house for dinner. I was so focused on trying to understand their strong Welsh accent, I'm sure they thought we were strange. Just fresh off the plane and so eager to work with youth, we hung out that night hearing about all they were doing. They were working with youth in town and we wanted to see how we could help them, and of course we wanted some friends. :) I remember saying "y'all" a lot and they still give me a hard time about that. But I'm Texan, and I just can't remove that word from my vocabulary. I've tried, but it just keeps coming back.Anyway, we become friends with them and got to witness their beautiful wedding! Then, the fall of 2003 they were going to start a coffee night in town on Friday night's and asked us if we wanted to help. Of course we did! Well, if you've kept up with us since we first moved here, then you know about our near death experience one Friday night with an anti-social 18 year old. We started up this coffee night, in a local methodist church that offered the use of their building to us. We served free tea and coffee and toast. It was a warm, dry place for the youth to come on Friday night instead of hanging out under the local bridge. Which is why the were affectionately known as "the bridge crew." Not long into this, we met this 18 year old. I'll call him Bob. Bob was struggling. He was often drunk or doing drugs. It was not uncommon to find him in the corner of the church doing drugs. He was angry, and that mixed with drugs and alcohol got him in tons of trouble. But for some reason, he kept coming to the coffee night. Sometimes he was decent and actually spoke to the 4 of us, sometimes he would get mad and throw things and then thankfully storm off the grounds with whoever was brave enough to follow him. We were there every Friday night for months, and we were getting to know some of the teens (and by that I mean, they were actually starting to talk to us, not just drink their coffee and leave) and we thought we were really getting some where with them. They were shocked that we would offer free coffee and toast, much less be nice to them for no apparent reason. I learned a lot during those months, and one thing was that I thought we knew what we were doing when it came to working with youth. I mean, Marc has worked as youth interns, I grew up in a great youth group. Surely that qualifies us. Ha! But I've never met youth like this. What an eye opener. I was so sad for them, I so wanted them to know Jesus.As months went on, I grew more and more anxious every Friday night, mainly because of Bob. I remember feeling physically sick on the drive over to the church, every Friday night. There were several times that I thought Marc and Dave were gonners! They were so good with Bob, but you just never knew when he would lose it! He was a big guy, and could have snapped them both in two. At one point we even had some locals that were big and musclular to come be our "bouncers" for a while and that seemed to help, but they could not continue to come every week. Bummer. Anyway, one night we were just chatting as usual and we heard someone yell, "Here comes Bob" and I just got weak and felt such dread come over me. It's sad that I was this scared of him, but I was. He showed up in his usual mode and things soon got out of control. I can't remember the actual events, but something happend that made Bob absolutely go baslistic and he starting thowing things and then he left. Whew. The evening came to a close, we locked ourselves in the church and were busy cleaning up and putting things away, when we heard a HUGE bang downstairs. And then we heard Bob. We just realized that he had broken through the doors that were locked, and he was in! He started screaming for us. We knew we were in trouble. Long story short, well not really short is it? We ended up locked in the kitchen, the 4 adults and a few youth that always stayed behind to help us. We called the police from our mobile and begged them to hurry. Well, Bob couldn't find us (thank you Jesus) and he left with a bang, just as he had come in. He busted a brand new boom box stereo into a THOUSAND pieces out in the car park on his way out. I'm just glad it wasn't one of us be broke!
We made it out alive, and the police finally did show up. The church asked us not to come back, and we understand. Bob did a lot of damage to that place. The sad part is that we lost touch with most of those youth and I pray that they will find Jesus soon! The good news, we formed a bond with Dave and Anna that night. We laugh about it now, and Dave still reminds me of how scared I was that night. Like I need reminding! :) We continued helping them out as much as we could with some other things they had going on and we became closer friends. When we left Pontypool in 2004, I remember seeing them at the back of the church at our little going away service and I remember feeling so strongly for them. They both have such servants' hearts and are so willing to help anyone, especially youth. We were proud to be able to serve what little we did alongside them while we were there.
They are still going strong in Pontypool and God is doing some amazing things! And all of this was just to tell you that they just welcomed their firstborn, a little Welshman. :) Y'all say a pray for them, as they enter parenthood for the first time and juggle all that they have going on! They are a dear couple. We love y'all Dave and Anna! Thanks for all you do in Pontypool, and thanks for being friends with us strange Americans. :)
We made it out alive, and the police finally did show up. The church asked us not to come back, and we understand. Bob did a lot of damage to that place. The sad part is that we lost touch with most of those youth and I pray that they will find Jesus soon! The good news, we formed a bond with Dave and Anna that night. We laugh about it now, and Dave still reminds me of how scared I was that night. Like I need reminding! :) We continued helping them out as much as we could with some other things they had going on and we became closer friends. When we left Pontypool in 2004, I remember seeing them at the back of the church at our little going away service and I remember feeling so strongly for them. They both have such servants' hearts and are so willing to help anyone, especially youth. We were proud to be able to serve what little we did alongside them while we were there.
They are still going strong in Pontypool and God is doing some amazing things! And all of this was just to tell you that they just welcomed their firstborn, a little Welshman. :) Y'all say a pray for them, as they enter parenthood for the first time and juggle all that they have going on! They are a dear couple. We love y'all Dave and Anna! Thanks for all you do in Pontypool, and thanks for being friends with us strange Americans. :)