Poured Out

After many miles travelled, we are finally in Oregon. Not quite “home” in Hillsboro yet, but we are in the land of mountains and evergreens. We’ve been drinking in the gorgeous green scenery. Our trip from San Francisco today was mostly uneventful. Joel has been a bit ill the past few days and he threw up in the car as we crossed a mountain pass today. He has had a touch of a cold and has thrown up a few times in the past couple days. But he seems really happy, so we’re not really sure what is going on with him. We would appreciate prayers for healing for him. Tonight we’re staying in a motel in Grants Pass and so tomorrow we’ll drive the final 250 miles.

Our last two church visits were great. Please pray for the people who have heard us speak about missions, especially for those who have said they are interested in going as missionaries. In almost every church we have gone to, there has been someone who is seriously interested. Everywhere we’ve gone, we’ve spent time with really wonderful people. We spent the last four nights with a great couple and their six children. Poor Aliyah was so sad to leave that she cried in the car for about half an hour when we left. These two weeks of travelling have been fun and hard at the same time. Meeting people and doing new things (like the horse riding the girls got to do on Monday) is fun – late nights, sitting still in church and saying goodbye to new friends is hard!

Update on my (Melanie’s) headaches: Praise the Lord, I have not had a headache for 7 days!! The sinus pressure I had has really subsided too. I have been following a pretty strict diet (as laid out in the book that was given to us at a church). Basically, it means avoiding a bunch of “trigger” foods for a few months. Then, if you feel better, you can gradually add them back in. It makes figuring out what to eat a little hard but I don’t mind if it’s going to make me feel better!! Thanks for praying. I am flying down to San Francisco on Friday for 24 hrs. to speak at a women’s missionary conference. I’m not sure if the headaches I had after we flew to L.A. were triggered in part by the flight – but please pray that the flight to San Fran. will NOT trigger a headache for me. And more importantly, please pray for the women’s conference on Saturday, that God would work in hearts and use me and the other speakers, as we speak. I am looking forward to it, but honestly, I am a little nervous!

We’ll try to post some pictures soon.

Just a quick update. It’s 4pm and I’ve just got back from Sun Valley church. We’re staying with a great family here and enjoying their hospitality and new friendships. They have seven children, by the way. We’re joined by Junia (eldest of 12 who was with us last spring) – she’ll be spending the night here which will be great. So I had three sessions today. A report about our ministry, then the preaching session, then a session with the youth where we had the great missions debate – each team got points for each reason why someone in the room should go on a missions trip (summer or longer term). We had to end the game after 49 points had been scored. Not bad for starters! Now I have an hour before I (or we, not sure which Meads are going yet) head out to another church for the evening service. I just need to tweak the powerpoint for that and get my thoughts together for the briefer pre-breaking of bread sharing I will be doing. A day of rest. Actually, Sundays are busy days!

Well, I found Peter sitting on the edge of the motel bathtub this morning, checking his email! Now I am sitting here, checking mine. Mariah and Joel are still sleeping so we are all trying to stay quiet to let them snooze on. The last two days have gone well. We have visited two churches and met some great and encouraging people. We pray that we’ve been able to be a blessing and a challenge too. Lots of people have taken books off our book table and literature about missions. Last night, we were treated to a blind gentleman playing a hymn on the saw! If you have never seen the saw played, it’s amazing! He played Jesus Loves Me too and was delighted to hear our girls singing for him. The kids are all doing really well and being a delight to the people we meet. Joel is his usual smiley self, but very unusually, he cried alot when we put him to bed last night. We never did figure out what was wrong (teething?) and he finally fell asleep.

Thanks for praying about my (Melanie’s) headaches. I did get a headache on Tuesday evening, but it wasn’t as severe as the previous ones, so I was able to cope til I could get to bed. I went to the doctor yesterday to see if I had a sinus infection. He wasn’t sure but he gave me some antibiotics just in case. I decided to hold off on taking them for a day or two to see if I improve any. I felt alot better yesterday actually, and didn’t have a headache at all. May that continue!

Today we will travel to a friend’s house and spend 2 days there. This friend is my oldest friend! I have known her since I was five! A great blessing to get to spend time with her and her family.

Thanks for praying for us! Please keep it up . . . we know it makes a difference.

We’ve had a great week at our friend Carol’s house and today we leave to begin our slow trek north to Oregon.  We’ll be in the southern California area til this Saturday when we’ll drive to the San Fransisco Bay area.  Then after a few days there, we’ll begin to travel north to Oregon. (check our schedule page for more details).  Our church visits went well on Sunday.  Keep praying that what people have heard will stay with them and God will work in their hearts – especially that some will commit to go into missions.  The girls sang a song called, This is the Gospel, in the morning for everyone and did a great job.  They will probably sing at the churches we visit in the next week.

The kids have had a wonderful time here.  They’ve played hard outside and enjoyed the dog immensely.  Good thing she is a patient dog!  It’s also been great to be with old and new friends.  We will be sad to leave.

One major prayer request – since we have been here in California, I’ve been feeling on the verge of getting a migraine every day with a lot of sinus pressure.  I did have one on Friday, which I “slept off” but I had one on Sunday evening that was probably the worst one I’ve ever had.  The whole situation was really awful.  I wasn’t able to speak to people at the church service and was in severe pain.  Fortunately, God blessed us with someone to help  watch the kids during the service (I spent a lot of time in the bathroom) and a man gave us a really helpful book on migraines which I have been reading.  I know I need to change my diet (hard to do when travelling) and maybe see a doctor when we get to OR.  I have had migraines for a long time but in varying degrees of severity and frequency.  Right now I feel like I am living in fear of getting one every day which is no way to live, especially when we are travelling.  Please pray for spiritual protection.  Is this a spiritual attack?  Pray for relief and wisdom in handling the situation.  And for stability for my health and for the kids as we travel – different beds most nights til we get to OR on May 1st.  Pray that we’ll be a blessing and a challenge to everyone we meet.

Here are a couple to go with the last two posts . . .

Once we got off the plane, he finally crashed!

The view from the breakfast table (no snowmen here!)

“Lady” – needing a rest after all the attention from H & A.

Well, we crashed about 8 or 9 pm (kids earlier) last night and only had to get up once with Mariah who was crying about 9:45. Then we were awakened about 5:45 by Joel (I would’ve cried too, if I had a diaper like that on!). So, we all got up about 6:30 and all but Mom are now out for a walk with Carol (our hostess) and Lady the dog. We are staying in the desert (Hemet, CA) and it’s really beautiful here (Please note, this is not technically desert, although everyone from outside Hemet thinks it is desert here). Lots of colorful flowers, bunnies hopping around in the backyard, and brilliant sunshine. I think we had all nearly forgotten what the warm sun feels like, but it feels so wonderful!! This is our third time staying with Carol as a family (first time with 2 children, second time with 3 and now with four!). The girls love it here. Lots of space to run and play outside and a very sweet dog named Lady to take care of, take for walks, etc. What a blessing to be in a place where we can relax and get over jet lag in beautiful surroundings with a good friend. We plan to go out shopping for a few things today – sandals for the kids, cheap haircuts for all (gotta love the US prices!) and maybe a cheap mobile phone. Thanks for praying for the flight. God really blessed us with a mostly painless 11 hours (plus the hours on either end traveling to and from the airport!). It is exciting to be here and we feel eagerly expectant about what God will do during our 3 months here.

If you’re checking to see if we arrived, we have . . . thanks for checking (and praying!)  The day has gone really well.  The biggest problem was forgetting to bring Joel’s bear.  While it might be good to break him of his sleep prop, we don’t really want to do it right now.  Bear is being sent so he should be here soon.  The flight was long, but good.  We all slept a total of zero minutes.  Basically there was no sleep, and no crying, and lots of walking around, wasting time in the back of the plane, etc.  We were on the plane for over 11 hours, so for it to go so well was a real answer to prayer.  Aliyah got locked in a toilet, Mariah started to strip in the aisle (to the amusement of all but Mom who was just out of reach!)  Talking of Mom, she put the lid on Joel’s cup after it had been refilled and sprayed a beautiful arc of water over the seat into the hair in front.  Apart from that lady who didn’t seem to see the funny side of it, the other passengers can really have no complaints at this family of 6.  After we arrived we got all our 7 bags, 1 cot, 4 car seats and headed out to take the more than two hour drive to our friend Carol’s house.  Mariah cried for the last part of this journey, but again, it could have been so much worse.  Now they are all wiped out and we’re about to join them in sleepy-land.  Hopefully they won’t be waking us at 4am though.  Once we do get up, I’ll re-read this post to see if it is coherent!

The clock is ticking down very quickly!  Melanie surprised me with a night away together on Friday to celebrate my birthday.  In the midst of everything it was great to change the pace and relax together.  The children also had a great time with their carers to whom we are very grateful!  Yesterday I preached in Guildford in the morning, then enjoyed a birthday celebration in the evening.  Today and tomorrow is all we have to finish packing, arranging details, clearing the house a bit (we have two friends moving in while we’re away – good timing for them since they have to leave their place and are lookng for another).  I will update the schedule so you can see what the rest of April looks like for us.  This is probably the busiest couple of weeks of our time away, even though most of it will be busy for one reason or another.

We are planning lots of details right now.  Yesterday I described it like trying to organize three vacations and half a house move at the same time.  Truth is that we’re not getting three vacations, but the details are similar – travel, car rental, motels, etc.  Melanie has surprised me by arranging a night away together to celebrate my birthday.  We leave this afternoon and return tomorrow.  Please pray for the children to do well without us here.  Hannah will be in charge.  I’m just joking – friends from church have been lined up to take care of them all.

In the midst of it all I have been enjoying the briefer times of message preparation lately.  It really is a delight to wrestle with the text and let the text wrestle with you.  This has to be one of the top privileges in my role (although we all have the privilege of spending time in God’s Word).  On Sunday I am preaching Mark 2:1-12, then there are several messages to work on for the US meetings.  Please pray for this privilege to be fruitful so that I am ready for each meeting.

As I was doing the washing up tonight (doing dishes for you Americans), I guess I was reminded by the Holy Spirit of the importance of prayer in times of stress.  Sounds like a no-brainer, but I find myself forgetting this lately. It’s so easy to press on (and stress on!) and forget to cry out to God.  Cast all your cares on Him, because He cares for you.  Thank you God for this reminder.

Honestly, I am pretty stressed out right now.  So many details still to think about, so much to pack and prepare for our trip.  And the children are not particularly happy at the moment.  All the older girls can think about is the trip and I think the “waiting to go” is making all other possible activities to be “boring” to them. So they don’t have “anything” to do and I have more than enough to do!  A bad combination.  Mariah is finally starting to recover from her bad cold which she has had for over a week.  For the last week til now, she has been very easily upset, not sleeping well, and just generally miserable (not to mention disobedient).  I am feeling pretty helpless as to how to help her be more happy.  This is just hard for me to deal with with all the packing and extra tasks to do.  Thank you for casting these cares on God with me.

We have had a family offer to fold and mail our prayer letters.  Wonderful!