It was a dream come true when God moved us to Childswickham House. It was tailor made to what we needed…
Our community’s dream of having special guest accommodation and running some kind of retreat centre was born in the 1980s in Slough, when we hosted regular interdenominational meetings for groups from local churches.
The dream came true when God moved us to Childswickham House in 1989. It was tailor-made to what we needed. Wonderfully enough, the previous owners had spent the same eleven years doing up our new home that we had spent working on the old HOD house in Slough!
None of us were trained in hotel and catering management or as chefs (and still aren’t though we’ve all done Health and Safety training!). Despite this, the word spread quickly about our place, and after two or three years we were fairly well-established, with a reputation for good food, comfortable accommodation and peaceful atmosphere. Judging from our guests’ comments, this is much the same today.
Over the years we came to average about 2600 guests a year, and that fulfilled a prophecy we were given in the early eighties that there would be thousands passing through our home, not hundreds or millions, but thousands. At the time we couldn’t see how that could be, but all is revealed in time! We keep our rates as low as possible so that people won’t be put off coming because they can’t afford it. And the great advantage of being able to earn at least part of our income in this way is that we are able to be more flexible for outreach work and ministries.
When we moved to Childswickham we knew that God was giving us this beautiful home not only for us to enjoy. He meant it as a blessing to those who don’t have the privilege of living in the midst of green trees and open fields; to help those who need a bit of inner quiet find it in peaceful surroundings; to give God’s people space and time to be with Him.
Reading thank you notes from people, it’s so obvious that God takes our puny natural efforts and adds something supernatural to bless our guests.
For this, and for everything He does:
“Give thanks to the Lord for He is good; for His love endures forever!”
