The OBT had holidayed at Brockley Hall, in Saltburn-by-the Sea, in 2002. Then we had experienced inclement weather, so extreme that there was local flooding. This time, there was much rain on the first weekend. However, it brightened up, so much so that we were able to undertake a number of activities such as walking part of the Cleveland Way around Roseberry Topping and another region on the cliffs just north of Robin Hood Bay. Some visited Fountains Abbey, to view the impressive water gardens, and another day it was down to Whitby to see, amongst other things, the remains of its abbey.

For our studies, in the mornings we first look at Timothy: The Man and learnt how outstanding he was for much of his life and how useful he had been. However, from the two letters Paul wrote to him, it would appear that Timothy had become somewhat reluctant to use the gifts given him, possibly because of his stomach problems and frequent illnesses

After that we began working our way through 1 Timothy and, although we had planned to finish it in the week, the lively discussions and questions ensured we just about finished the first four chapters.

In the evening we studied selected chapters from Matthew’s Gospel. We did this by first looking at the chapters on The Visual Bible—an excellent dramatization using the actual Scriptures, word for word from the New International Version.

We first views the chapter from the DVD and then raised and discussed certain points. We covered the chapters 1-8, part of chapter 15, chapter 24 (which generated much discussion) and chapters 26-28. Chapter 27 was so well done, that most of us just sat their quietly: there was little we could say.