I see on the news this morning that there was a 5.3 earthquake last night north of London. Very interesting. We felt nothing (although unless Melanie were to wake me, I would sleep through an earthquake!) This is Peter, reporting from Little California!
The annual batch of three parties in as many weeks is now over. Here are some pictures from the last two.
Mariah turned three on the 19th.
She was excited to receive her very own dolls house (since it’s hard to squeeze between H & A to get to the other one!)
And an umbrella is usually a good idea in England – although this year has been beautiful so far!
Hannah wanted Black Beauty on her cake . . . voila!
Here’s most of the group gathered for Hannah’s trampolining party – which was a great success.
The lady running the party was great. In control and organized, but allowed the children to have fun too. Hannah got to be first in her group each time they changed what they were doing (and thankfully nobody got hurt!)
In the middle of the fun, we all headed out to the kitchen to enjoy the birthday meal together. Somehow they went back on the trampolines after enjoying all this food!
Teething troubles with the web site are lasting as long as teething troubles with the children (actually, none are teething at the moment). It sounds as if some emails to Melanie’s account have not been getting through. If you have emailed either of us and heard nothing (bear in mind that Melanie doesn’t respond as quickly as I tend to), please resend the email. When you resend the email, please also cc this address – pouredoutpeter (at) gmail.com (substitute appropriate symbol for email). Hopefully we’ll get to the bottom of this soon. The slow site is also an issue being worked on . . . thanks for your patience.
It’s funny how schedules work. At one point I was thinking the spring schedule was full, then a couple of things got rearranged or cancelled and now there are some gaps. This isn’t a problem. Instead of having to prepare to preach on Sunday, today is free for me to work on other projects. I really need to push through a book proposal or two and get them sent off. Please pray for a good publisher to take an interest so that we can move forward with at least one of the books soon. This week our friends are away and have left me their house key for somewhere to work in complete quiet. It has been great! Tomorrow we have Hannah’s 7th birthday party, details to follow.
I just submitted my visa application for Nigeria. Flights are paid for and the clock is ticking. Please pray for the visa application to be successful and to be completed in good time (4 weeks and counting). Sometimes these things can become last minute stresses or can even be refused (there is no reason why this should happen). Appreciate you praying for that. If you’re interested in the event, please go to gofestnigeria.com. It should be a strategic event, please pray for it to make a significant difference in Nigeria and beyond.
We mentioned a while ago that we were trying to get tickets for our US visit. We were never able to repeat the great price, but we have the tickets booked at a decent price.
We got back this evening from the weekend away. Melanie finds it funny how English English is often very literal (eg. pushchair rather than stroller), and in this case a “weekend away” rather than a “retreat.” Thank you for praying for us. In many ways it was a very good weekend. The messages all seemed to go very well and the feedback was very encouraging. Hopefully this investment from God’s Word will bear fruit in the short and long-term. The messages were just part of the package though – great music adds so much to church life, plus beautiful setting, great food, and a good atmosphere among the people. On the challenging side Melanie had a bad migraine last night, plus Mariah was unwell for the first part of the night. Being away together is a blessing in many ways, but it’s also a much more complex experience for all of us! We’re glad we did it and thankful to the church for inviting us all. The children seemed to enjoy themselves too. So now it’s back to normal life. We’ve a birthday to celebrate tomorrow, ministry to plan and so on. I’ll write soon and ask for prayer about a trip coming up that has some specific challenges attached. But for now, thanks for praying.
We are leaving in a few minutes to drive an hour or so south to a retreat centre where Peter will be speaking to a church group. He will be speaking 5 times on the “Journey of faith” from the book of Hebrews. Pray for him to be empowered by the Holy Spirit and for people’s hearts to be open and hungry. As always, we both want to be used in whatever way God has planned for us – sermons, conversations, example, etc. We have even encouraged the girls to look for ways to serve and show God’s love to people there. Minor but important prayer points: our health and sleep. For once, we are all healthy!! Pray that we will stay that way and that everyone will sleep well in a different environment. Pray for no migraines for me either (sometimes they are triggered by lack of sleep). We look forward to reporting on how God works!
All except the first picture can now be enlarged if you click on them.
Hey everybody! I’ve got some new photos of my family to share with you. I’ve been a very busy boy lately.
Look what I did while Mommy was rolling out a pie crust in the next room!
I went back to the cupboard to pull out some more, but I think I got them all! I am so proud of myself.
If you came to our kitchen, you’d see a lot more than me getting into mischief. Here’s Aliyah, helping Mommy cook – one of her favorite things to do.
When she’s not cooking with Mommy, she likes to spend time with me. Did you know Aliyah is five years old now?
Here she is, all dressed up for her party.
And here is the pink castle cake Mommy made for her – yum!
For the last ten days, Aunt Carol has been staying with us. We’ve had lots of fun with her!
Hannah even dressed up in Aunt Carol’s clothes, trying to be a teacher!
If she keeps on reading as much as she does, she’s gonna be ready to teach me soon!
We love music in our house. Here’s Hannah, playing her guitar. I keep trying to get my hands on it but nobody lets me try!
Every day we do school in our house. Here’s my littlest big sister, Mariah, “doing school” like her sisters.
Next week, Mariah will be three years old.
Yesterday, we all went across the road to try to take a family picture. I never stopped smiling. Here is the one that came out the best.
Bye bye for now. Thanks for praying for us!
Please pray for this country. Yesterday Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury (leader of the Anglican community), stated that Britain should adopt some Islamic Sharia law. The idea of allowing for Sharia courts in Britain apparently would “help maintain social cohesion”! It’s hard to fathom how short-sighted and dangerous this thinking is. Here is the BBC report on what was said (remember that the BBC has a definite agenda and so this report may make his statements sound much more politically acceptable). Perhaps we should request Judeo-Christian courts in every Muslim country for the non-Muslims. More seriously, we should pray. The front cover of Time magazine this week carries the story of the Muslim success story in Europe. Let’s pray for those in authority and influence, and pray for the people of Europe and Britain.
