Working for God's people in North Wales

As you know, I have become involved in a project to help a Welsh hill farmer save his business and his family from financial doom. Our local Methodist churches have rallied round to buy the equivalent of 55 whole lambs which, under the government scheme would have been slaughtered and incinerated at a silly hand out price not worth rerpeating. Last Wednesday, along with a friend I travelled to the farm up in the hills to collect the first order. We had to wait until the farmer returned home with more bags for packing the order. My friend played with the young son who was not well and off school whilst I helped get ready the last of the joints etc for packing.

Then the farmer arrived back with a new supply of bags. At this point we were tucking into wonderful bacon butties! He and his wife packed the remaining joints and we loaded the vehicle. Then, over an hour late in our schedule, we slowly negotiated the narrow country lanes as we returned to Anglesey. The first load was left at our sister church and then we drove a further half hour back to our home church to unload the rest. A number of batches had then to be delivered to certain house. By the time I finished for the day I found myself eating a Chinese takeaway meal at about 10.30pm

As I had a further need for 6 lambs I agreed to be the courier for other orders on Friday. Loaded up with 22 lambs, I set off for my first drop in Bethesda. This proved hard to find even with Sat/Nav but eventually I found the customer. My next port of call was a house above Llanfairfechan which I found eventually. It is not easy to navigate in the dark. Next I got a phone call from my wife asking if I would make it to a Bangor address for 5.45pm. This could not be done so I then drove across to Y Felinheli, south of Bangor where I dropped five and a half lambs. The house was a terraced property in a narrow cul de sac. So I had to reverse very slowly to regain the road.

That was the end of the mainland deliveries and off I went to Brinsiencyn where the old Mermaid Inn sits on the shore of the Menain Strait. After relieving myself of a further load of lamb I set the Sat/Nav to take me across the island to Llandonna. I knew the people at this drop so I called them up and they guided me to their house. After the offer of a coffee which I declined, I set off for Benllech where my customer took 3 lambs. Then I drove over to Amlwch to drop off my last load for the night. At about 9.30pm I was back home unloading a whole lamb for personal use.

Next morning I drove over to Cemaes Bay to deliver half a lamb. I came home, had some breakfast with my wife and set off to drop the remaining lamb in Bangor. It had been stored overnight in the boot of my wife's car which was as good as refrigeration that night. The previous night I realised that someone had made a mistake with my order and I was short by half a lamb. Luckily this customer was not too bothered and will be getting a half lamb later next week.

Next week I shall take my wife out for a drive in the country and stop off at the farm to get this small order. It has been very hard work but I have thoroughly enjoyed it because I was physically helping someone in need. God calls us to undertake many different rolls in life, but this one was a bit different. Before hand I was looking forward to it and now I can say I enjoyed it tremendously!