Here are a some pictures from this weekend. We went down to Cardiff Bay yesterday, about 10 minutes from our house. It was cloudy and rainy some, but we enjoyed getting out of the house since it's been raining most of the week!
We went back to Pontypool this morning, Marc was preaching at Upper Trosnant, the church where we lived (yes, literally lived) from 2002-2004 when we did youth/children's work. I'll post some pictures of that as well.
For my family and a few of our friends who have been to Pontypool, you will see quite a few changes at Upper Trosnant. For one, the siding and doors are painted black now (The church siding was a dark red, and our front door use to be white). They have gotten permission from the council to pave the graveyard that is beside the church. It's in the process of being cleared, leveled and then will be paved to make a carpark. There is no parking for the church, so this will come in handy to have it's own carpark. For those of you horrified about a cemetery being paved over, it's a
really old cemetery and it was a long process that the council went through to decide if it was okay to do this. There are no living relatives left of anyone buried there. This is more common here than you might think. Anyway, the headstones will be placed at various places in the carpark, along the wall, etc. Our old flat is being used an office right now, but I will post some pictures of the backside of the church. They have also put up a makeshift gate on the left side of the church, remember that crazy small area we actually backed our car into? It's now gated, and they are refurbishing the church hall behind the church. So, they have a lot going on!
It always brings a smile to my face every time we drive into Pontypool. That was not always the case. There were many times I would cry driving into town and driving up to our flat. God did a lot of work in my life and heart those 2 years in Pontypool and now going back just brings so many memories to my mind. I remember crying the first few weeks in our little flat, it was quite a change from our apartment in Euless, TX...I never thought I could get use to living in a flat located in the attic of an old church, with a graveyard as our scenery. But, the day we moved out I cried harder than when we had moved in! I had come to love that little flat that the two of us shared. Ok, anyway, enough of me carrying on that like this! Here are some pics!
Cerys, before we left for the Bay
Aww, sweet
A view from the Bay
We have actually become Doctor Who fans...can you believe it?!? This was an exhibit in the Bay, and we had to take a picture of the Tardis!
Bailey enjoying the ride! (while mommy got dizzy walking in circles helping her hold on)
Here are the Upper Trosnant Pics:
Marc chatting it up
If you've visited us in Pontypool, then you've met Ron! Hi, Ron if you are reading this!
This is the cemetery, the view from the vestry door (behind the church)
Some of the headstones piled up
This is the back of the church, looking at the Church Hall, where we had TeamKid, it's being refurbished as you can tell. Adding a new kitchen and indoor toilets! woohoo! It was built in 1908 as a "temporary" building. hehehe. Oh, and it will have heating! Oh, you don't know how thankful I am for that!
The back of the church, and those 3 windows were our flat...the big window is the small bedroom/office and two smaller windows up there is our bedroom!
Those are the stairs leading up to our front door, and the side of the church. You can see the gate that was added, this is where we would back our car in for parking. Let's just say there were plenty of dents and scrapes when we returned the car! (And only one or two were from Marc. oops!)
This was the other side of the flat- our front door, the window on the far left was our living room, then the entry way window by the door, then that small window on the right was our bathroom. Cosy.
Aww, our front door. All painted black. It actually looks better painted black, because it use to be white and with all the rain, it was turning a nice rust color.I realize I referred to everything as "our door, our flat, our living room" etc. Well, it will always be OUR flat. Even though it is being as storage/office now, we were the first to live in it in a long time! The sweet folks in Pontypool did a lot of work to get the flat livable for us and we are so grateful. It's definitely different, but we loved it!
Sorry this post ended up being really long! Hope you enjoyed the pictures!