Poured Out

But we haven’t really got any spare wall space for more.  So we’ve decided to add some to this site.  If you scroll down you will see two bookcases on the right of the page.  One has books that I’m currently reading, the other has Melanie’s current selection.  Unfortunately if you scroll over a book, the report that comes up is so tiny it might not work for putting our reviews on there.  We’ll see if we can adjust that, but feel free to email if you want to know about any book.  Note that there is an arrow at the bottom allowing you to scroll through our current books.

I have a morning routine, almost a ritual.  The alarm goes off early, I get up, get dressed in a semi-asleep state.  Wake up enough to pick up my laptop with a couple of things balanced on top (usually a couple of books and the powerpack), then I proceed to tiptoe downstairs trying not to wake anyone.  This morning I got up, got dressed, but didn’t have to pick up my laptop.  Thankfully I had moved it downstairs last night.  For some reason the top step was in a different place today and I fell down the stairs.  Not all the way.  Perhaps half-way.  Scraped knee, bumped back, squashed finger and bruised ego.  Most importantly, the kind of bang-bang-bang that someone my size would make while bouncing down the stairs.  I sat still for a moment, evaluating the extent of the damage (nothing broken), and waiting to hear who would be awake.  Nobody.  So in light of this, why?  Why did I move my PC downstairs last night instead of this morning?  And the bigger question – why do I creep through the house every morning?  The pressure is off, tiptoe-ing is a thing of the past!

The petition I am going to present on Saturday to our MP regarding home education is all paper-based.  You can still sign the East Surrey one before Saturday if you contact me before then.  However, there is an online one you can easily sign in about a minute.  Here is the link for it:

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Home-ed-families/
Most of you reading this are not home educators, but a very negative bill is due to go through parliament very soon and we are trying to keep the ground that is rightfully ours to parent our children as we see best.  Please could you stand with us and sign this petition and bring the whole thing before the Lord in prayer?  We see this as a start of a slide down a slippery slope of more government control and more loss of Christian freedoms.  Thankfully, we know that God is in control whatever the outcome and yet there is plenty that we can do to make our voices heard and protect the freedoms we have.

It’s feast or famine with me usually . . . here are a bunch of photos to help you see what our family has been up to in October and November!

Here is a result of a “puzzle fest” hour!

The girls . . . all dressed up for a party.

We are in the middle of Week 10 of our school year.  Lots of learning going on . . .

We managed to get several nature walks in during October before the nasty November weather hit.

One of the big projects recently . . . potty training Joel.

He’s doing great!  The girls have been superb potty training assistants (what do they need mum for anyway?!)

Another big boy step . . . we’ve taken the side off his cot.  Our baby has grown up!

Aliyah with Daisy . . .

And Hannah with Dandy (Dandelion)

Dressing up remains a favorite playtime activity

Doctor Joel!

The girls are loving their swimming lessons.

I put Joel on a time out in his room one day and later found him “reading” his favorite Bible story (Daniel and the lions).  Awww.

My aunt Carol came a few weeks ago and surprised the kids!

The next day we left for Exmoor for a week’s break.  Some gracious friends let us use their lovely house.  This is the view out the back garden.  The girls were thrilled to find horses.

We enjoyed the wildlife on a few drives through the moor. We got very close to a moor pony.

Also saw loads of sheep – and cows too.

All the rain we had that week made for some beautiful rainbows.

The children had lots of fun outside and inside we read, played games, did puzzles and watched movies.

And the big event recently . . . Joel’s 3rd birthday!

He’s been requesting a train cake for about the last 6 months!

Blow them out Joel!  Our family celebrated with a couple from our church and their little boy.

Among other presents, Joel (our music lover) got a drum and a little guitar. Thus, a band quickly formed!  Oh yes, he also got a Roman soldier helmet for his much-loved hat collection.

Happy Birthday, Joel the Builder!

We are currently in Bristol spending some time with Grandma and Grandpa Mead after a great weekend of ministry in the Forest of Dean. (more detailed report to come from Peter, I’m sure).  Tonight Peter will speak at his parents’ church and then we’ll head home tomorrow.  Please pray for Peter as he is quite swamped with a million things to do at the moment!  And pray for me as I finish collecting signatures for the parliamentary petition re homeschooling.  I will present them to our MP on Saturday.  If you are interested in signing the petition which opposes the government’s attempts to take away the rights of parents to be parents, please let me know.  Thanks so much for all your prayers.

Less than a week after being with the ships office in Mosbach, I was surprised to hear the big news concerning the Doulos.  Let me quote the official news:

Press Release: The ministry of OM’s ship Doulos will come to an end on 31st December 2009.

Doulos is the world’s oldest ocean-going passenger ship, now 95 years old, with the hull built in 1914, just two years after Titanic. In spite of the all year round maintenance that has taken place, the amount of steel replacement and other repairs needed for her to continue sailing are overwhelming. The ship is presently in Singapore and has been undergoing the annual period of dry dock and surveys.

Early indications are that the work would cost over €10 million and take five months to complete. The OM Ships executive leadership team and board believes that is not appropriate to invest resources of this scale into the ship, since Doulos would have a limited ministry future.

Chief Executive Officer of OM Ships International, Peter Nicoll, said, “The outcome of this is that Doulos will not be able to continue in ministry. This is not what any of us wanted, and has serious consequences for everyone on board, those about to join and for ports we planned to visit.”

“We are committed to operating safe ships and complying with the requirements of our classification society, RINA, as well as the International Safety Management requirements for ships,” affirms Peter Nicoll. “We have been praying that God would use this five-year ‘special survey’ to give us a clear picture of the way forward for Doulos and that He has done.”

The well-being of the 280 crew and staff onboard is of paramount importance. Each person will receive the guidance and support they need to decide what their next steps should be. Some are close to the end of their period of service, while others joined as recently as September.

Keeping the ship compliant with the highest marine standards has been a real challenge over the years. It is a remarkable testimony to the professionalism and dedication of the non-profit organisation’s technical personnel that the ship has continued to meet marine requirements until now.

CEO Peter Nicoll stated, “We recognise God’s faithfulness through these 32 years of wonderful service of the ‘servant’-Doulos-as an outstanding OM ministry, through more than 600 port visits in over 100 countries. Many lives have been transformed, both visitors and those who have served on board.

We are also deeply grateful to our partners around the world who have supported the ship in ministry through the years. Please continue to pray with us as we work on present challenges and seek the Lord for the future.

With Logos Hope now active and exciting ministry taking place, we are investigating possible options to charter another ship in the interim and have already begun working on the Doulos replacement project.

Ken Miller
Director of Communications
OM Ships International

It does feel a bit busy at the moment.  Both of us are looking forward to December when there might be a bit of space in the schedule to get to things that have been forced onto the backburner for a few weeks.  Melanie is working at the moment to collect signatures from people in this area to present to the local MP (member of parliament) in opposition to government plans to fundamentally change the stance of the law on homeschooling, and by implication, on parenting and education in general (changing it from a right to a privilege determined by authorities, with all the implications that come with that – including compulsory interviewing of children without parents present, etc.).  If you live in Surrey and would like to add to the nationwide petition that Melanie is handling for this area, please let us know.  Please pray for the rushed government bill to fail.

Meanwhile I’m pulling my preparation together for this weekend of ministry.  Nine sessions in four days in four churches.  Here’s a snapshot – sessions on Revelation Friday and Saturday evening, along with a seminar on Bible Study on Saturday afternoon, a Sunday morning message on the Christian’s relationship to the Law and a Q&A on Sunday afternoon.  That’s a church Bible weekend.  Saturday morning I have a men’s breakfast at an Anglican church in the area.  Sunday evening I speak at another church full of old friends (please take that the right way).  Then we head to Bristol where I’ll speak at the church I grew up at on Tuesday evening.  Thanks for praying for all this – no need to remember the details, God answers prayer even when we don’t remember which specific meeting is which!

So I arrived home late last night.  It’s good to be back.  The first half of the week was calm, the second half more manic.  Thursday evening’s meeting in Lancaster went really well.  Probably about 120 present, along with twelve missions organisations.  Hopefully there’ll be fruit from that meeting in terms of people getting involved in missions short-term and long-term.  Also, with a group of students like that, hopefully there’ll be some who commit to giving significant amounts for world missions in the future (ie once they have high-paying jobs).  It’s always a challenge to get people to consider living on less than they earn, rather than on 110% of what they earn!

I drove back to Tilsley College and was in bed by 2am Friday.  I had a couple of hours left there before driving to Edinburgh airport where I caught my flight to Frankfurt, then on by train to Mosbach.  I arrived half an hour before the first meeting there.  The weekend was great.  Great to see old friends.  Great to make new friends.  Great to sense that many were blessed by the time spent in fellowship with each other and in God’s Word.  I left at 3pm yesterday and made the journey home by train, plane and automobile.  I was too tired to read profitably, so I decided to feast on other people’s preaching instead.  After a week of giving it was a blessing to receive.  Almost seven hours of messages from a varied group of communicators – Haddon Robinson, Ken Davis, Ravi Zacharias, Ron Frost, Stan Toussaint, Dwight Pentecost, Ronald Allen, Stephen Kim and a whole series from Andy Stanley.  A real mixed bag, but a delightful way to spend a journey (although I had to rewind a couple of times when my eyes shut posture became a sleeping posture!)

Thanks so much for praying for us.  Now we are home for a few days before we go away for the weekend . . . together.

It’s been ages since I’ve written on our site . .  . apologies again.  I will try to get some pictures up soon from our week away on Exmoor.  Today was my last full day without Peter.  I do miss him a lot!  He will be home late tomorrow night.  From what I hear, things are going well in Germany so far, although we haven’t been able to talk on the phone today.  Life at home has been going alright.  It’s had its ups and downs.  Last week was rough headache-wise for me, so I am thankful that I haven’t had any headaches this week.  I’ve gone back to my very strict diet again.  It’s just not worth it to eat something and then pay for it with a headache.  Overall my health has been so much better over the past 2 months or so.  I will be starting on some medication and supplements soon to deal with yeast/bacteria in my digestive tract so you can pray these will be effective and I will not feel too yucky during the treatment.  The goal is to get rid of some long-standing digestive problems and hopefully, this will also help my headaches too.  I have also stared on some supplements to support serotonin production which should work in conjunction with the migraine medication I am on.

The kids have been quite well-behaved this week.  But they have had their moments . . . Honestly, my patience was wearing quite thin today and I struggled with holding my tongue.  It seemed there were lots of little things that went “wrong,” that made it hard to keep a good attitude.  But . . . no excuses!  I am responsible for my own attitude no matter how others act (sounds like something I’ve told my kids like one million times!).

Anyways, now for the lost and found story.  Tonight when I put Mariah and Joel to bed, we could not find bear-bear, Joel’s precious bedtime companion.  After 15 minutes of turning the house upside down and praying to find him, bear-bear was still in hiding.  We had tried giving Joel about 10 much more plush animals, but no, only bear-bear would do. (He is well worn with a perpetually soggy right paw.)  Joel lay there in the dark with Hannah, Aliyah and me standing near his bed urging him to think of where bear-bear could be.  We had already gone on several fruitless searches based on Joel’s ideas.  It was silent for a minute.  We all pretty much gave up hope and then a little boy voice said, “Maybe he’s in the blue bag.” Hannah and Aliyah rushed from the room shouting, “Check every blue bag!!!”  (Our children have a thing about bags, so we have more than one blue one!)  They raced into the playroom and then back upstairs triumphantly holding bear-bear, who looked very nonplussed at being rescued from the blue bag.  We had a quick prayer to say thanks to God and then the children settled nicely down to sleep.  OK, that last part is not quite true.  After messing around in their room for nearly an hour, opening and shutting their door multiple times, I finally had to go and remove Joel (fire truck in hand) from Mariah’s bed and tell them no dessert for tomorrow for their bedtime misbehaviour.  Just wanted to present a picture of reality!!  In any case, they are happily asleep now, bear-bear safe in Joel’s bed.

Thanks so much for praying for us.  I will try my best to get some pictures up tomorrow . . . or at least before Joel’s 3rd birthday pictures are taken on Wednesday.

I just got off the phone with Melanie, it’s late and time to sleep, but a quick report first.  The week has gone well so far.  The students are a good group again this year and I’ve enjoyed being with them.  The bulk of the teaching is over, although tomorrow morning I have ten messages to listen to, chair feedback interactions and grade.  Then I’m off to Lancaster (150 miles) to speak in the evening, coming straight back here.  Two final hours to close off the course here on Friday morning followed by a journey to Germany where my first session is on Friday evening.  So instead of teaching preaching, I now need to switch into preaching mode.  Appreciate your prayers for the last sessions here, the Lancaster meeting, then the five or six sessions in Germany.  I should be home on Sunday evening!

After a great week of holiday together.  We had decent weather (the rainy bits didn’t matter, but we had some sun too).  W had a very refreshing few days with more sleep than usual, fun games around the snooker table, drives in the beautiful Exmoor area, a couple of cream teas, an adventure for Peter and Hannah in the raging streams near Dunkery Beacon, a couple of hard fought games of Monopoly, good food, a couple of movies, etc.  More details will probably follow, but this post is just to say we’re home.

Oh, and to say that tomorrow I leave for Motherwell, Scotland.  I’ll be there Monday-Friday teaching preaching at Tilsley College.  Thursday evening I’ll be driving down to Lancaster to speak at a special missions event.  Then Friday I fly to Germany to preach at the OM Ships head office team retreat.  I’ll be home Sunday.  Please pray for all of this and all of the Meads at home here.