Poured Out

Tomorrow morning I’m off to Holland for four days.  The new recruits conference is already in full swing, and I will be jumping into the mix on Saturday morning.  I have a session and a workshop on the Bible on Saturday, then the Sunday morning meeting on the uniqueness of Christ, probably some involvement in Mission Possible on Monday, then two sessions on Grace and Integrity on Tuesday.  I return on Wednesday.

Please pray for the sessions to all go well, for interactions to be strategic, for the travel to work out without too much hassle, and for Melanie with the children at home, of course.  Thanks!

I just received this update from Peter Maiden, head of OM:

We are very encouraged by the number of people joining us through our August GO conference. The number at present stands at 267, though this can change a little in the final days before the conference begins. This would be the largest number joining us since 1997. We often ask you to ‘pray for labourers’, so please join us in thanking God for answered prayer.

With OM Ships requiring less people from this conference than usual, this means a much larger number going to various OM Fields, and interestingly this is particularly within Europe. Please pray for the conference beginning on 24th August, for safety in travel to the conference and then the teams and for integration into those teams on arrival.

I’ll be involved in the conference a little bit over the middle weekend.  Please pray for these sessions to be significant as God chooses to work through them.  Thank you.

We are very encouraged by the number of people joining us through our August GO conference. The number at present stands at 267, though this can change a little in the final days before the conference begins. This would be the largest number joining us since 1997. We often ask you to 'pray for labourers', so please join us in thanking God for answered prayer.

With OM Ships requiring less people from this conference than usual, this means a much larger number going to various OM Fields, and interestingly this is particularly within Europe. Please pray for the conference beginning on 24th August, for safety in travel to the conference and then the teams and for integration into those teams on arrival.

The three girls are enjoying a day in London today with a good OM friend. Melanie (and Joel) will spend the day with Melanie’s good friend Michelle. I will spend the day with the Bible on CD as I drive 333 miles on perhaps the busiest day of the summer. I’m off to Keswick for the first time. Although the timing is not good (we move two days after I get back), I have been looking forward to this for a while. I will be helping to lead and speak in the K2 stream – young adults track run during week 2. This involves three morning speaking sessions, helping to lead and present the evening sessions, and leading a small group every afternoon. I make the return trek on Friday.

Please pray for the time at Keswick to be fruitful, and for us not to overlook anything as we pull details together for the move. Please also pray for us all with the emotions of leaving so many good friends here. We are really looking forward to getting to Chippenham, but not to saying goodbye at this end – we’ve been very blessed here.

I always seem to write a post at the beginning of the weekend.  Not sure what original title to use.  We’ve been clearing out in anticipation of our move (2 weeks from Monday).  I won’t let Melanie near my books, but she’s done a great job of reducing the inventory of toys and children’s clothes.  Tonight we have friends coming over, then tomorrow we are long overdue for dates with the little Meads (i.e. they are needing some one-on-one attention – parental code for something relating to lack of structure due to being out of school season!)

Tomorrow evening I will be up in Bishop’s Stortford to lead a theology study group.  I was delighted to discover the chapter they have read is on Church Government.  That should be a fun discussion, then on Sunday I preach twice there.  Please pray for this to go well, and for us to stay sane as we approach the move.  I’ve said several times our goal is to move by faith rather than by stress.  Not exactly moving to Canaan, but it is west of the starting point.

On Wednesday I took Ron over to Chippenham to look around, check out what’s available to rent in the town for accommodation possibilities and see the church.  It was great to spend some time with friends there and he thoroughly enjoyed the visit to the future home town of Cor Deo.  Thanks for praying for us.  Our prayer letter and new prayer card should be coming to you in the last couple of days (UK) and in the next few days (US).  Please let us know if you didn’t get it and would like it – just send an email with your address and we’ll make sure it is on the way!

The sun is shining and the green view out of the window in front of me is great . . . and will be missed when we move (my office window view will be another house, nevertheless, at least it’s an office, that’s a very positive thing to look forward to!)  I have about an hour to finish the handouts for tomorrow, then I’m off to town to get them copied.  We’re looking forward to spending the evening with good friends.  Tomorrow morning I need to leave about the time the birds have their ten minutes of orality, for a morning seminar up in Letchworth.  How to help new Christians grow . . . what a great subject!  Then I come home to hang out with the family for the rest of the day.  Sunday I’m back in Letchworth in the morning, then speaking at Oakhall in the evening (finishing off a 3-part Micah series).  A busy weekend, but should be a good one (despite the lack of teams of interest from our perspective in the world cup final!)

The last 2 months here in the USA have been wonderful.  We are so grateful to the Lord and His people for providing us with accomodation, vehicles, many meals and sweet fellowship.  I really did TRY to narrow down the photos . . . but still ended up with quite a few I wanted to share.  I hope you will enjoy them.

We arrived in Chicago on April 28th . . . Aunt Carol wasted no time in buying Joel a Chicago Cubs t-shirt (baseball team for you Brits!)  It took him a few days to figure out that baseball wasn’t the same as football.  He kept demo-ing his “baseball” skills with huge kicks! At various random moments, we’d hear a Joely voice shouting, “Go Cubs!” (or as it was a few times, “Go Cups!”)

We made lots of great memories in Chicago with Aunt Carol.  Here are Hannah and Mariah at the Brookfield zoo . . the animals were hard to spot that day but at least we got up close and personal with this lion.

We were able to connect with many old and new friends in Chicago.  The girls loved dressing up at the home of some of our good friends.

Aunt Carol was a wonderful and gracious host during our 3 week stay with her.

The weather was beautiful most of the time we were there and so the children really enjoyed riding bikes outside.  Mariah is sporting her new Little House on the Prairie bonnet in this photo.

We got to go visit our good friends, Roger and Maxine in another part of Illinois. Here are Joel and Mariah with Roger.

One of our favourite outings in Chicago was our visit to Kline Creek Farm, a living -history farm set in the 1890s time period.

I don’t have any photos that will do the Creation Museum justice, but here is a funny one of Hannah holding up a dinosaur outside the entrance.  It was a fantastic visit that we will never forget!

Ride ‘em cowgirls (oh, and cowboy!)

Here’s all of us (minus me, who took the pic), eating in Noah’s Cafe.

From Chicago, we flew onto Oregon where the highlight was getting introduced (or re-introduced) to Matthew and Claire!

Story-time with Auntie Amy!

The girls absolutely adored their baby cousin, Claire.  They were all eager for their turn to feed her!

Here is knight Matthew posing with the not-so evil dragon Joel!

We had a special visit with our good friends, Gabe and Kari Meiers, home from Boliva where they are missionaries.  Hard to believe that this crowd has been produced from just 2 couples!

Mariah amazed us all at church family camp by declaring that she was going to do the “zip-line.”

She was the first Mead family member to do the zip-line (which became a highlight of camp for the girls!) at just 5 years old.  The girls and Peter also did the giant swing where you drop about 50 feet from the top of a tree.

Joel preferred to hang out on the nearest motorized vehicle, declaring that when HE was five, he’d do the zip-line.

Couldn’t resist throwing this one of Hannah in here.  Thanks for the glasses, Kari.  They were a hit!

Wherever you saw Claire, Aliyah was usually nearby.  Aliyah has a very special way with babies and small children, actually all our girls do.

Gathering eggs at our friend Chris’ house . . .

We also got to ride her horse, which was a real adventure!  Hannah did great, even though the horse hadn’t been ridden in 1.5 yrs!

Hannah spent lots of time talking with Grandma about the “good old days.”  Here she is in Grandma’s wedding dress.

At the Oregon Museum of Science and Industy, I think this was one of the funnest moments the kids had with their cousin Matthew – hiding in lockers.

We made so many special – and goofy – memories with Matthew . . .

. . . and of course with Claire-Bear too.  She is sweetness personified.

Here is Mariah and her friend Katie – all dressed up!

Our friends, the Fishes, were very gracious hosts.  It was wonderful to spend time with them and of course their dog Heidi, who Mariah was never far away from! (She seems to have conquered her fear of dogs on this trip.)

Matthew and Joel with Mo’s hats on . . . during our lunch at the beach.

Joel surprised us by insisting on ordering Mo’s famous clam chowder (which he’d never eaten before).  He and daddy ate every bite!

Our family hasn’t been to the beach in years!  Even though it was cloudy, it didn’t rain and we actually came home a little sun-burned.  It was a glorious afternoon of wading (swimming in Hannah’s case!), sand castles and time with Auntie Amy, Matthew and Claire.

The Papworth lady descendants.

Joel, daddy and Matthew built a sand castle.  When they were done, they marched around it 7 times singing “Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho” and then smashed it!

This was the result!!

Feet that so often walk on the soil of countries so far away from each other . . . together today.

It’s been a special trip . . . but now it’s time to hit the road for home, walking the path that God has for us.  We look to “that day” when there will be no more goodbyes to family and precious friends and we’ll have all eternity to enjoy the Lord together.

We fly out on Thurs. a.m. Portland time and arrive in London Friday a.m. London time.  All the Meads are excited to return home to the adventures God has ahead for us.  We think we may have found an ideal house to rent in Chippenham and are in the process of applying to rent it. Please pray that God will keep it for us til we get back if it is truly the place He has for us.  Thank you for your prayers and love for us.

PS Believe it or not, I might have some more photos to share when we get home. I haven’t downloaded for the past week or two! So watch this space.

It’s a bit hard to rhyme with Creation Museum, but it’s as close as I can get.  We arrived in Oregon on Thursday after two good flights.  It’s great to be with Melanie’s parents and to go to our home church today.  This evening we went over to her sister and family’s.  The children love playing together and they’d cooked a great meal . . . but we’ll probably remember this visit for adding another chapter in the annals of the Mead/Hickman stomach flu chronicles.  I won’t bore you with our previous history, but tonight Hannah and Joel were both very unhappy (that’s both an accurate statement and a euphemism for something more tangible).  We would really appreciate your prayer for them to both sleep and somehow for the rest of us not to get it, or to show the fruit of the spirit if we do get it (we’re trying to teach them about handling these minor sicknesses by faith, but hopefully we won’t need to be examples for them).  Thanks for praying, we better try to sleep while we can.

I’m writing with an S.O.S. prayer request.  We arrived here in Chicago on Wednesday.  Friday morning I woke up with a headache, then had one by 11am on Saturday and Sunday.  Amazingly, painkillers dealt with those almost completely.  However, I got one yesterday and another today which painkillers have NOT dealt with.  It is extremely rare for me to get migraines 2 days in a row but this is day 5 in a row.  I am not sure what is causing them -a combo of factors probably (plane trip, body clock changes, different pillows?).  But this is very discouraging for me when I have had so much improvement in the past few months.  Being on our ministry trip alone presents challenges . . . but this is really tough.  The fact that I am sitting here writing this is a good sign (ie that I am not in enough pain to sent me to bed) but probably will need to lay down soon.  I am trying hard to trust that God knows what He is doing.  He is allowing this for a reason.  In the grand scheme of things, I’d rather have physical pain than a lot of other problems in life.  But please could you pray for God’s mercy . . . for healing – forever and especially during this trip ?  And if He chooses not to “remove this thorn” that I will trust Him and be able to live a godly life (ie not being miserable to live with!) despite the discouragement.  Thank you so much for your prayers.

On the positive side, the children enjoyed a fun trip to the zoo with Aunt Carol today.  I’ll try to put up some photos soon.  Tomorrow we meet up with friends from another church during the day and then Peter will share at their church meeting in the evening.

The front room is now full of large duffel bags (how do you spell that word?)  and we are ready to go.  Time for a quick shower, packing of the toothbrush and a brief breakfast.  I’m reminded of the chasm of difference between the experience of travelling alone (which I know well), and the experience of travelling across the ocean with four little people as a tag team of parents.  At least this time we don’t have any tiny people, and really just one total non-reader to entertain (although Joel thinks he can read, which might be useful today).  We fly at lunch time on a Continental flight operated by United – just nine hours.  The children are very excited.  We’ll see if they have any energy left at the other end where their excitement will be mirrored by Melanie’s aunt waiting for us!  We should have email access in the next weeks, so please stay in touch.  We fly on to Portland on May 20th.  Thanks for praying for us during this trip.

The volcano issue was interesting last week when airports were closed for a few hours.  Now they have been closed for a few days and problems are mounting for many around us.  We have friends missing holidays, others missing missions trips, others whose businesses are in jeopardy.  Our friend Ron Frost was supposed to be flying in to London tonight, but he is stuck in Estonia for now.  Cor Deo has a trustee’s meeting on Wednesday, but we’ll have to mark Ron as absent . . . which is a shame since these meetings always feel more like fellowship than just business.  Tomorrow I have a meeting that several key people are unable to attend.  Friday I’m supposed to be flying to Belfast for a conference on Saturday, but we’ll have to see what happens in the next couple of days.  Next week we’re scheduled to fly to Chicago, so as the week progresses I suspect the children will grow more nervous.  It’s amazing how one volcano in Iceland can create such widespread problems.  We can only imagine what the world would be like if things were really let loose.