Matt and Becki Dillingham

Home Assignment Week 3

Our journey south took us to Devon where we have 2 supporting churches and lots of supporters. We were staying in a cottage close to Becki's parents for the week, so we had to remember how to cook for ourselves again, having spent the first two weeks in B&B's or staying in friends' houses. It was a lovely cottage on the edge of Dartmoor, the only drawback being the WiFi didn't work so our plan of catching up on emails and internet shopping had to be abandoned. No worries, we've lived in Madagascar for a year so we're just happy that water comes out the taps!

Our lovely 500 year old cottage

Saturday was a glorious day for Becki's birthday picnic at Mount Edgcombe. We were joined by her parents, brother (with his new wife and dog) and friends Anne and David. Bethan loved taking the ferry across from Plymouth and had a lot of fun building piles of stones by the water's edge.

Birthday cake

On Sunday we went back to Bovey Baptist Church where Becki gave a presentation and showed a videoabout some of her flights. Becki coped well with some technical problems during her presentation and then we were lucky enough to listen to an excellent sermon. The church has been very supportive of us while we've been in Madagascar and it was a pleasure to go back and to be able to chat to people over a great lunch afterwards.

Fellowship lunch at Bovey Baptist

Becki grew up in Bovey and knows some nice places to go for a day out, so we took Bethan out to Yarner wood. She really enjoyed watching the birds from the hides and playing pooh sticks whenever she found a bridge. Becki went to meet up with an MAF prayer group in Exeter who have been praying for us over the last few years and have even sent letters out to us, which are always a pleasure to receive.

In charge of the route around Yarner

Another group, who have been exceptionally supportive of us has been one of the house groups at Bovey Baptist church, who have adopted us and kept in regular email contact. We have got to know each other quite well despite not meeting (most of) them. This changed on Tuesday as they organised a BBQ for us and we had a great evening in their company. Earlier in the day we met up with friends in Paignton and then Bethan built a sandcastle at the beach, completing her list of "things to do while I'm in England". Luckily they weren't too difficult to arrange!

Sharing our video

Building sandcastles at Paignton seafront

The following day Bethan had a day in Seaton with her grandparents while we went shopping in Exeter.

With the tram

Thursday was a "weekend day" for us so we met up with Bethan's best friend Grace and her mum, Kate and visited the House of Marbles to see some impressive glass blowing. We then took the girls to feed the ducks, which was going well until Bethan scared the ducks away by throwing sticks for them. For once, we were able to invite someone to dinner at our house so we spent the evening with Tom, who has known Becki since college. Hopefully we convinced him to visit us in Madagascar next year.

The large marble run

Reading 'Fix-it Duck' to Grace

Story time with Tom

The next day we re-packed our overloaded car and headed to Princetown, where we had been offered a bed for the 2 days that we hadn't managed to arrange accommodation for. En-route we stopped for cake with a supporter. We chatted with her about life in Madagascar while her dogs were given a lesson in sharing by Bethan! Another house, another dog (or four in this case) for Bethan to play with at Ann and David's. They were so kind to let us use them as a B&B while we went to visit other people in the area. That evening we had dinner with a lovely family from church.