Craig Rayner

50th Wedding Anniversary

March found me spending some time in Australia, preparing a family event and spending a lot of time on the phone. The family event is the 50th Anniversary for my parents, who where married 5th April 1958. I have been working on this with my brother Stuart and his wife Anne-Marie. We have been digging into the family and friends photo libraries and have unearthed a great deal of history. I have also been learning that many of the photo albums that we placed our photos into in the eighties are very bad for your photos, so one task has been moving photos to acid free photo albums.

The Phone

The time on the phone is also close to my heart. This part of the month has been spent talking to Debbie in Hong Kong. We are truly thankful for Skype. This has allowed us to spend a lot of time at minimal or no cost in excess of the internet charges. Debbie, you may recall from last months letter, and I are very much a couple, although you would be hard pressed to see evidence of this as we are still over 9000km apart, in Hong Kong and Australia respectively. As I write this paragraph (Tuesday 1st April,) Debbie is actually getting closer to Australia aboard a Cathay flight into Sydney this evening. Today will be the first time in 10 months that we have seen each other. Debbie is being thrown into the deep end of meeting my family at my brothers wedding on Friday (4th) and Dad and Mum’s 50th on Saturday. The rest of the schedule is also reasonably packed with time with my club family in Queanbeyan as well.

I will be meeting Debbie’s family at a similar gathering of the Kruse family when Deb’s mum is married in June. I am looking forward to a trip to Montreal with Debbie for that event. I do have a small advantage, as I have met both Deb’s mum - Annette - and sister, Kathryn whilst I was in Hong Kong.

I have also been blessed by the response to the news of Debbie and I that I have received from those of you that receive this newsletter. We also enjoyed a time catching up with many of the Crossroads team and my friends in Sydney (3rd) last night. We extend a big thank you to Alma and Milton for their generous hospitality in hosting this event.

It is indeed a wonderful feeling to be in a space of trying to contain the exhilaration and anticipation that is a part of this development in my life. Those of you who have seen me since this started are very aware of how bad a job I am doing of keeping this contained. Bring it on, is all I can say.

Kazakhstan

At the moment plans for Kazakhstan are on hold until Debbie and I work out the longevity of our relationship. Should we proceed to marriage, we would both be going to Kazakhstan. We have talked this over and this would be a given within our marriage. Should we not proceed to marriage, then I would continue to Kazakhstan later this year. My immediate plans are to follow Debbie back to Hong Kong on the 19th April and work with Crossroads. Debbie and I will then travel to Canada in June and back to Hong Kong in July. After that the calendar is a little obscured. Regardless of the outcome of relationships, I will still be fulfilling the call that I have on my life to Kazakhstan.

Support

Thank you so much for the support that you all give me, in whatever form that support takes. I have been asked by a couple of people how they can contribute to support for the work that I am doing. Obviously bringing my case before the MD is a big one. The other option is financial. I will be adding how financial contributions can be given to me to the bottom of this newsletter as a regular feature from now on.

Photos

• Dad and Mum 50 Years ago
• Debbie Kruse
• Donkey cart at Pervomayekskaya, Kazakhstan. 2006.

Contact Details

Phone:
Australian Phone: +61 (0)2 6100 3637 This phone number connects with my Skype account and has a messaging service.
Hong Kong: +852 6271 4477

Mail to our Hong Kong address should not be sent from overseas after the 18th August 2008. All mail received after the 8th September will be redirected to our Australian post office box.

Donations Australia

For Australian Donations please send your support to:
N.L.C.Q.
P.O. Box 758
Queanbeyan N.S.W. 2620
Australia

Please make cheques payable to “Craig Rayner.” Cash donations (at NLCQ) need to include a note that the donation is for Craig Rayner. This support is not tax-deductible.

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Contact and Donation details were last updated on the 26th August 2008.