St Peter's Anglican Church East Lindfield

Volcanoes, Praise, Prayer and Accommodation!

0 comments | Posted by St Peters on 16 Apr 2010 in Missionary Support ::

My Dear Friends,

Right now we feel like we’re even further from family and friends than usual, for we were due to be flying into England for what would have been the first time that ALL of Catherine’s family have been together in almost 19 years since our wedding … but alas we are stranded here in Madrid due to the Icelandic volcano closing all UK airports!

I feel SO sad for Catherine and her parents, sisters and Uncle and Aunt, who are all gathering in Southpiort as I type, for Catherine’s parents’ 50th Wedding Anniversary, and even Laura and Joshua who are very sad about not being able to get over to see everyone. They have been amazingly excited and now amazingly sad. Catherine and I have just returned from the airport after waiting in line in to speak to a person rather than the impossibility of any change or human(!) through the internet. As it stands now all flights are booked until next weekend, and that’s if the airports open tomorrow morning!!

Anyway – such a delay/cancellation has enabled me to hit the keyboard agan now to chat with you.

We have been blown away at the amount of things that have been happening of late, as was Sophie on her Mission trip to Croatia over the Easter week when we four were on holiday on the south coast in a friend of a friend’s cabin! It was wonderful – but far more significant and wonderful were the conversions in Croatia and the growth and life in Sophie … Praise the Lord. I cannot believe how Sophie has taken to evangelism and outraech and speaking and prayer …

For those that don’t know, here are a few points of recent news:

We have been invited to attend OMS training in the States for six weeks in July and half of August
We are trusting we can raise the remaining airfares for this and to then head onto Australia for a period of reporting back and sorting out various matters of ours after being away for three and a half years now rather than the expected one, and to attend to Mum and some of her needs too – it now being almost two yeas since her stroke here in Spain
My sister will be marrying in the States in June and we expect that we will be be able to get there to be the only family members in attendance for Alison
My other sister in Kiama, Australia is nearing the end of her eight months of chemotherapy for her breast cancer, and may be on a celebratory trip in August/September, meaning that our expected arrival then enables there to be at least one family member in the country with Mum, as Heather has been all this time

Prayer and Praise Points:

We met with most of the OMS Vision Norte team and local Pastors Josue and Prisca, here for lunch last Saturday. It was a fantastic opportunity for sharing of our respective visions and developing further our networks and working together
The local Algete church is growing so rapidly – almost 50 attendees now, from very small numbers initially. Josue and Prisca are a great find for Algete and the surrounding areas
The seven young girls that came to the Lord through prayer and chat with Sophie in Croatia, and for the local follow up that is already in place through the local contacts who invited the team there
Catherine has been meeting with numerous women with varying degrees of scope for chat and prayer – including a muslim neighbour who has been sharing increasingly about her frustrations with Iran and religious politics
We are in the process of hopefully arranging for some people to be able to stay in our house here whilst we’re away which would assist hugely in covering rental payments here
On that note, and in case it falls through … should there be anyone desiring a place to stay in Madrid for a period of what might be up to six months (July-December) please let us know!
Probably most selfishly now, we are praying along the lines of an affordable place for perhaps five of us to stay somewhere on the north side of Sydney for perhaps four and a half months from mid August preferably not too far from either Lindfield or Berowra. Should you know of such a place, PLEASE let us know – for this is one of our major points for prayer right now
I would LOVE for Catherine, at least, to get a flight tomorrow to England, if they should start again. Please pray that she gets a cancelled seat, miraculously, on standby, with thouands waiting for the same to replace their tickets from today
Above all, please pray for HIS work here in Spain. Oh how these guys need love and a knowledge of God and His saving nature in their lives … Don’t we all?!

Despite trying to be brief … !!! … I have again filled a page!!

By the way – if anyone can remind me how to make my photos a smaller size when saving or sending them I’d be grateful, for we have many more but they’re all too big!

We love receiving your news – thanks for your love and encouragement and faithful support for the Lord’s work here in Spain.

God bless you and may we see you soon