Poured Out

It’s been ages since I wrote a post . . . several friends have gently encouraged me to break the silence!  So here I am.   Peter is in Cardiff tonight, speaking onboard the Logos Hope at a special evangelistic outreach.  He will return in the wee hours of the morning in time to sleep a bit before preaching at Oakhall tomorrow morning.  A busy weekend.  We had an American family who were in London on holiday come over for lunch which was fun.  The kids and I spent the rest of the day relaxing – the kids were mostly in the garden.  They are so full of imagination.  Tonight’s game was pretending that first Joel, then Mariah, then Aliyah were famous filmstars.  They put Joel’s sunglasses on, put him in his little plastic car and wheeled him to the back door where they announced his arrival with great fanfare!  Then, coached by Hannah, Joel asked, “Will you marry me?”  Later on, Aliyah (aka Cornelia Fizzbert) gave a speech to spellbound audience (me!) and I was instructed to ask for her autograph!

The last few weeks have been quite nice weather-wise so the kids have been spending tons of time in the garden, watching our plants grow (yes, we, the green-thumb challenged Meads, are trying to grow veggies), keeping watch on the 6 baby birds in the nest in our shed (they have now all flown the nest!), playing in the sandpit and inventing every kind of creative game you could imagine.  We have continued busily working on our schoolwork, studying the Romans in history and the human body in science and of course plugging away at math and English and Italian.  We have about a week or two left of official curriculum for this year and then I will probably do a few light weeks of studying special topics before we break completely for the summer.  The kids are greatly anticipating the arrival of my Aunt Carol, who will be taking care of them while Peter and I go on our special anniversary trip to Rome.  What a brave woman she is!  The children continue to bring us much, much joy – many laughs and also many reasons to keep us humbly on our knees as parents.

I know many of you have been praying about my health and I really appreciate it.  Honestly, the past month or two has been a really confusing, challenging and exhausting time for me.  It is hard for me to explain everything . . . I have been physically and emotionally very weak.  It is a season in my life of just taking things a day at a time and hanging on to the Lord.  I will be having some tests this coming Thursday (4th) and we would really appreciate prayer that we could get to the bottom of whatever is going on physically and also that I would be strengthened in spirit to keep going day by day.  Thank you to everyone who is praying.

I arrived home last night just before 10pm.  What a week it has been!  The European Leadership Forum is an amazing event on many levels.  A European-led networking and resourcing forum for leaders across the continent, refreshingly and robustly evangelical.  We deeply enjoyed plenary sessions from Dr John Lennox in the life of Joseph, I enjoyed being a participant (not instructor) in the Bible Teachers Network, then a variety of afternoon workshops from people like Wayne Grudem, Gary Habermas, and probably my favourite this week – Peter Williams of Tyndale House.  Then there were the evening plenary sessions too.  In between all of that there was the encouraging and strategic fellowship with various folks at meal times and simply wandering through the venue.  Then there was the group that I was invited to be a part of, a real quality group of church leaders from across the UK and Ireland.  What a blessing to get to know them, to talk together, to strategise, to dream.  I am certain good things will result from this week, not only among our group, but right across Europe.  Last year’s forum led to well over 200 events being organised in different countries as a result of the forum.  This year it will be bigger.  I can’t imagine a more strategic event for the whole of Christianity in Europe, and I was delighted to be privileged to participate.

Meanwhile Melanie had a much better week than last time I was away, getting to spend some special times together with a close friend.  Her health is still a concern and we hope for the next weeks to be significant in that regard.  If you’ve prayed for us this week, thank you so much!

I leave tomorrow for several days in Hungary.  I’ll be attending the European Leadership Forum (you can google it if you like).  I won’t be speaking.  I have always resisted opportunities to travel overseas for conferences when I am not speaking, but this opportunity caught our attention.  I was invited to join a delegation that will be meeting at the conference in order to discuss training initiatives among the assemblies here in the UK.  I am praying that I will be able to encourage others, influence strategically and see good ministry opportunities develop as a result of these meetings.  I return on Thursday.

Really appreciate your prayers, not just for my meetings over there, but also for Melanie with the children back here.  My last trip away was tough for Melanie and it would be great if this one could go more smoothly.  Thanks for your prayers, and if you live close, for any help or encouragement you’re able to offer Melanie.

I had an enjoyable evening in Cranham, Essex, yesterday.  I took Aliyah with me and enjoyed meeting the good folks there.  This morning I have been encouraged by a report sent through from the preaching seminar I c0-taught last month.  I’ll share some of the feedback comments for your encouragement (since through prayer you participated in this):

“Thank you so much for this seminar on preaching. It’s as though we’ve been asleep all this time, and now we’ve woken up.”

“I’m eagerly waiting for second level seminar next year!”

Sometimes people get the impression that our schedule is full for months or even years to come.  Sometimes it feels a bit like that, but I love it when I get to preach on short notice.  I was asked a couple of days ago to preach at a new church for me, just round the other side of London.  So tomorrow evening I get to do that.  Today a very long-term friend is coming to London to hang out and hopefully enjoy watching a football match together (I usually rely on online highlights to save time, but it’s worth watching the whole deal today – especially since I’d only be checking the score if I wasn’t watching it!)  Yesterday Melanie took the two older girls into London on the train to enjoy “afternoon tea” with friends from the States at a central London hotel.  They had a great time.  The day before that I picked up a new friend from Heathrow airport and hung out in a huge hotel lobby for a while (I’ll explain that more at some point).  I suppose our schedule seems a bit full at the moment, even though this is technically a light time in the schedule.

Yesterday was a solid Sunday.  I left fairly early to get to the breaking of bread service in Guildford, which was a blessing.  Then I preached in the second service there.  They are in a series in Exodus, so I got to preach Exodus 18 (Moses’ advice from his father-in-law).  Then I drove home (enjoying hearing my football team pressing on to a good season finish – it’s hard to concentrate on listening to other things when they’re playing!)  Had a couple of hours at home before heading out to drive up to Peckham.  Peckham is in London and it took over an hour to wind my way up through the city.  Used the car time for a few phone calls, then arrived and figured out where to park.  I agreed to speak at Rye Lane Baptist Chapel as the Logos Hope line-up team needed a speaker.  It was a blessing to be able to help them out, and to meet the good folks there at the church.  I finally got home about 9:30pm.  It’s a blessing to preach the Word and one I never want to take for granted.  Now I have a clear week to press on in some writing and planning for the future.

Just a brief note to say that my dad is now at home.  He actually came home on Monday . . . sorry for the delay in posting about it.  He still has a constant headache but hopefully that’s going to fade eventually.  He has followup appointments in 2 weeks with a few doctors and has to be very careful not to hit his head in the near future!  Thank you SO much for praying for him.  I am sure it’s going to take a while for him to recover but we are super thankful that he is as well as he is!

We enjoyed an interesting discussion at breakfast today.  If Jesus is preparing a place for us, does that mean we’ll have our own room?  If we will, then I hope mine will be . . . (fill in the blank – blue for Hannah, purple for Aliyah, a certain kind of curtains for Hannah, a certain kind of furniture for Aliyah).  Well then, if you have preferences, why not ask?  I wonder how different our lives would be if we really lived in anticipation of what is to come.  While decoration of the room seems more important to my little ladies than it does to me, I wouldn’t be surprised to find a lot of personal loving attention has gone into our lodgings when we arrive. Wouldn’t that be like a God who loves us individually and infinitely?

What is it about what is to come that will stir not only my prayers, but also my living in these days?  I strongly reject the common myth that awareness of the future makes us irrelevant and uncaring toward the world around us today.  Seems like people perpetuate that idea because they aren’t gripped by all that God has promised for the future.  Anyway, none of that anti-future stuff in this house.  I’m very encouraged if my girls are making requests about the room Jesus is preparing for them.  I’ll be even more encouraged as that future motivation shifts from colour of paint to other aspects of a lasting eternal legacy from this life.  Who was it that said only two days matter – that day, and today (and we live one in light of the other)?

Thank you for praying for my dad.  Thankfully, things don’t seem as serious as we thought at first.  They have seen that the bleeding in the head is not getting any worse.  So that is good.  He is also very mentally alert and has been able to eat and get up and everything.  He does have an ongoing headache which is understandable!  The latest is that they have found he has a fractured skull in the back of his head.  So they are going to be doing some more testing to make sure that his carotid artery is not affected.  They will probably keep him in the hosptial until Monday or Tuesday.  I know this is probably a disappointment to him since they told him yesterday afternoon that he might be able to go home today.  So, you can keep praying for wisdom for the doctors, protection for his head, patience for him (he’s not the type to “stay down” for long) and the ability to sleep.  I am feeling pretty calm at the moment so thank you for praying for that.  I know it’s making a difference.  We had a nice day as a family doing some planting in our garden – flowers and vegetables.  We are the world’s most novice gardeners so we’ll see what we end up harvesting!  Some very kind friends gave us a lovely strawberry plant too which the girls are really excited about.  I will keep updating about how my Dad is doing.  Something that I have heard my dad say quite a bit is, “A person is immortal until his work on earth is finished.”  It looks like God has some more work for him to do . . . we hope and pray for many more good years for him to serve Jesus.

Well, it’s May Day and it started out as a good day.  The kids and I spent the morning in the garden, cleaning things up – especially the contents of our shed.  (A robin has been raising its young inside and has left deposits all over the bikes.)  Anyway, the sunshine was glorious.  Unfortunately, the day turned a bit sad as I found out my dad is in the hospital in Oregon.  He appeared to have the flu, then passed out last night, hitting his head very hard.  Apparently, he has bleeding in his head, so they have transferred him to another hospital.  My mom does not know much more than that right now.  He is conscious and doesn’t seem to have had a stroke or a heart attack but they have not ruled out surgery for the bleeding.  Obviously, I am pretty upset . . . I have had an emotionally fragile week or two so this is coming at a time when I feel I don’t have much in reserve to cope with this.  Please pray for wisdom for the doctors and for healing.  I know that the Lord is in complete control.  He is taking care of my dad.  I will post more when we know more.