Family Newsletter for 1998

Each year we send out a Christmas Newsletter to family and friends.
The text below is a slightly edited version of what we sent out for Christmas 1998

"He has come and has redeemed his people"

Colin and Elizabeth

Colin and Elizabeth in October 1998
Colin and Elizabeth
October 1998

Holidays Looking back, it seems that this has been a year for Colin and Elizabeth to take some special holidays. We went to Turkey at Easter to visit our friends, Steve and Debbie (and their children Matthew and Pollyanna). While there we took the opportunity to visit Istanbul, Ankara, and finally Ephesus. On Easter Sunday, we sat in the ancient Ephesus theatre (Acts 19:23-41) listening to groups of German and American tourists as they burst spontaneously into happy multilingual song "Christ the Lord is risen today".

In August we shared a house in the New Forest (south coast of England) with Richard, Rachel, Jasper, James and Joanna - a week in which Jasper learnt to walk and to say his first word "Duck!" (anything with a beak whether yellow plastic or brown feathered). "Duck!" is said with great emphasis and panache.

At October half-term, Colin and Elizabeth took a short break in Rome. We spent four days walking around historic sites like the Colosseum and the Vatican - a first time visit to Rome for both of us.

 

Colin has produced this year’s newsletter using his new megacomputer (a Dell Pentium) and its amazing all-in-one HP colour printer/copier/scanner. He still runs a host of WWW sites. The photo above of Colin and Elizabeth was taken on the day of Joanna's DPhil graduation (see below). This was the first time that Colin had ever worn his Bristol PhD gown (plus hood and mortar board) - he was in Jamaica and received his doctorate in absentia. (We hope the colour photographs add to your enjoyment rather than detract from it!)

The demands of Colin’s job (as DTI’s Director - Environment) have continued to grow throughout the year with the increasing importance of sustainable development issues. He has been heavily involved in follow-up to the Kyoto and Buenos Aires climate change conferences.

Elizabeth left St Mary’s and St Peter’s CofE Primary School in Teddington at the end of the summer term after nine years there. She is now working part-time at Chase Bridge School in Twickenham doing extra support teaching for children aged 5-11 throughout the school (a post which the school funds by letting its grounds for use by companies during rugby internationals). She is also doing an RSA certificate course in the teaching of children with dyslexia.

TBC (Teddington Baptist Church) has continued to use Colin and Elizabeth in a variety of roles. We very much enjoy everything we do for the Lord in that community – e.g. our Sunday lunch for young people has continued throughout the year and Elizabeth is now secretary to Churches Together in Teddington.
Richard, Rachel and Jasper

Jasper has had a good first year! By his first birthday in November he was running around and charming everyone (well his grandparents anyway!) with his chatter. At least he no longer shouts "Duck!" during the prayers at church. You can see some more photographs of Jasper on our grandparent web page.

Rachel is still at home looking after Jasper, doing some tutoring from home, and she has just started an evening course on teaching English as a second language.

Richard and Colin went together to Twickenham in February to watch England play Wales at rugby - the less said about that match the better as far as Richard is concerned!

Richard and Rachel in August 1998 Jasper in August 1998
Richard and Rachel
October 1998 		Jasper
October 1998
Joanna and James

Joanna and James in October 1998
Joanna and James
October 1998

The photo of Joanna and James (left) was taken in October when Joanna received her DPhil at an Oxford University ceremony. Colin and James both hired their doctoral robes so they could be photographed with her. This photograph does not include Colin (although there is one of him suitably mortar-boarded above with Elizabeth) but copies of other photos can be made available at a price!

Joanna started work with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (part of the UK Civil Service) in January this year. The following month James took up his lectureship in medical statistics at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (University of London). They commuted from Oxford for a few months but in May moved to Beckenham in Kent. They have now joined Beckenham Baptist Church where James is playing the organ.

Rest of the Family

Heather has moved from Birmingham to London where she is working for a charity (Healthlink Worldwide) which seeks to improve the health of poor and vulnerable communities around the world. During 1998, this new job has taken her to Africa and India. Dad is living by himself in Birmingham but he and Andrew (Elizabeth’s brother) will be spending Christmas week with us in London.

Colin has not made much family history progress in 1998 other than adding James’ and Richard’s families to the database.

Five Generations Together in August 1998

Five generations in August 1998

In August Jasper was taken to see his great-great-grandmother. She was 94 this year and lives with her youngest daughter, Pat Hoddy, in West Moors, Dorset.

From left: Irene Hicks (great-grandmother), Jasper Evans, Kathleen Hargrave (great-great-grandmother), Rachel Evans (mother), Colin Hicks (grandfather)

Visitors

During the year we have given overnight accommodation to numerous people from around the world who are associated with Tearfund (a Christian aid charity). One man was going to Shanghai to help develop child care - we helped him set up a web site for his organisaion. We outfitted overnight a man from Chad who had lost his luggage. We helped a Kenyan lady with a six month old baby buy both nappies and a portable PC. Our Autoroute program was just the thing for two men from the Sudan who needed to drive from Guildford to Oxford by the fastest possible route. But our biggest challenge was the lady from Mozambique who spoke no English at all!
e-mail addresses
e-mail to Colin and Elizabeth: cphicks@btinternet.com or 100255.170@compuserve.com
e-mail to Joanna: joanna.carpenter@culture.gov.uk
e-mail to James: james.carpenter@lshtm.ac.uk