His generosity and love to Jesus is the first impression on David and also it was also the first thing we learned from David as Christians. We give thanks to God for the privilege to stay at David's home and live with him together for 2 years. David is a real British gentleman and a faithful Christian to our Lord. He is very generous and just let us to make his house our home. It was our first year marriage and Ruby's first year of going into full-time ministry as a Friends international volunteer. When Ruby applied the post, we did worry if we will be able to survive in expensive Cambridge with Yuk's PhD scholarship alone. It was David who say yes and provide free accommodation for both of us as a support for us - It was like a green light to us from God when we heard this news! And David didn't even meet us before he offers us to stay with him! Not to mention, David opens his home for CIO volunteers in summer and countless other events for internationals. Through David's help we grow our trust in God's providence and faithfulness.
Prayerfulness is another impression on David. Every morning David sits at his dinning table with a bowl of his regular/favorite cereal (full of raisins and good fabric!!), Bible and a pile of newsletters from people all over the world. We guess many of them are the mission partners David support and of course his friends and family too. He prayed for them every morning.
We also remember David baking us yummy rock cakes and we may enjoy tea with his posh silver teapot. He shares with us many things but he rarely shared the cake he himself made because he kept them for his grandchildren! He is never afraid of death and long for seeing Judith and our Lord in heaven but he kept going to serve Jesus with all his strength. We are amazed by his ability of accepting and learning new gadgets from time to time for all kinds of practical reasons, for example, a scanner to save all photos in a digital format. He is curious about food we made and found it shocking when we pan fried the cucumber and lettuce! We had so many good laugh together and David has also been with us when we face great difficulties. He encouraged me to lean on God when I was in hospital and gave me a bookmark which was a copy version of a stitch work from Judith with words from Psalm 46:1 God is our refuge. Psalm 46:1. Now it is my Bible bookmark.
David is truly truly our dear family in Christ. We will miss him a lot and long to meet him and rejoice together again one day in our true home.
