親愛的林牧師：

We are glad to receive and send greetings at this time of year.

We continue to have the sort of 'busy' lives that many retired people have. Ours revolve around church (still without a minister), University of the Third Age (in which Elizabeth now tutors a French class), a Cancer Research shop and a l40-strong choir based in a village just north of Cambridge. In June, the choir gave the first UK performance of Suter's 'Le Laudi' in Italian, to great acclaim. John opted out but Elizabeth sang and enjoyed the experience. Cambridge University is celebrating 800 years of history this year, so there have been many extra talks, concerts and so on, but we have managed to only a few. We also go to events at John's old colleges, Trinity Hall and Westminster (Theological) College. In the summer we play bowls with U3A.

In April at Camberley in Surrey we joined people from the United Reformed Church and the French Reformed Church for 'Le Weekend', an annual meeting for discussions in French and English. It has been happening in different forms for many years and we attend when we can.

In July we enjoyed a cruise to the Norwegian fjords (see picture of Olden, above). As the ship sailed from Rosyth (north of Edinburgh),  we combined it with visits to the three of Elizabeth's siblings who live in Scotland. Robert and his family have just moved from Birmingham to Wolverhampton. Their older daughter, Anna, enjoyed her six months in Bolivia and is now in her final year back in Portsmouth. Her sister Kathryn is now at sixth form college.

John's son David and his wife Margie have moved to Leeds, for them to give leadership to northern parts of the Worldwide Evangelisation for Christ organisation. Their elder daughter Ruth had a busy six months in Madrid with the Betel organisation which helps drug addicts. She hasn't found paid work yet. We see more of Helen and Colin, who live in Cambridge. Emma is doing an art course at Cambridge Regional College, while her twin sister Lizzie has started a degree course in Sport Management at Sheffield Hallam University. Richard and Rachel and family are in Derby. Doctor Rachel is soon to change to a job in a hospice in north-east Birmingham. Their David got a medal for his 'best in the school' exam results and is now at sixth form college.

We are grateful for good health on the whole. John had a brief funny tum, which led doctors to find that an artery in his neck was getting blocked. So at the end of September they did an operation which should lessen the chance of a stroke. He was in hospital for just 4 days.

We would be glad to see you here in Cambridge.

Best wishes for 2010

John and Elizabeth Whitehorn