Poured Out

Last Friday we were all sitting in a box in the Royal Albert Hall. It was a schools matinee performance of classical music, but it lived up to its “spectacular” label.  It was fantastic.  We were in a box because of the high adult to child ratio (i.e. homeschoolers!)  Down below us were thousands of school children, many of the girls wearing head coverings, most of which probably had never been in a building bigger than their school hall.  What a show we all had!  Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Welsh Guards brass band, a few stunningly impressive soloists.  When the music started, the lights were spectacular and the whole effect generated gasps and cheering from the amassed crowds of children.  Normally it would have been annoying, but actually it was very touching – an extravaganza beyond anything they’d ever experienced.  As I sat there I thought about when the musicians had rehearsed . . . that morning?  For a few weeks?  Actually, more like for a lifetime.  But compared to that, what will heaven be like?  So stunningly impressive, prepared for two millennia, creativity without limit, yet not totally alien to our experience of life here on earth.  Unlike the concert, everything will pale into insignificance compared to the central figure.  The conductor was good last week, but when we see the Lord, we’ll all worship and the gasps and sheer joy will be for Him, not just the surroundings, the effects, the lights, the music.  For now the question is probably this – who will get the gospel to these thousands of school children across London?

(I should also mention another abiding memory – Joel was sat on a raised chair next to me.  I restrained him via a belt loop in his jeans and he was sat cross-legged and contented.  With thumb in mouth and the other four fingers raised he was conducting – with those fingers, and with his other hand, all with a head-swaying motion.  Every time he noticed me watching him, he’d stop. But when he felt unobserved, he’d sway, conduct, and sometimes be singing along with the operatic pieces.  What a delight to see him totally enjoying the experience!)

After that concert I rushed across town, had a good planning meeting, then back to Cranham for the weekend of ministry.  This was a blessing, as were the two days with UCCF staff in Southampton.  Yesterday we had a family day – decluttering, swimming, and a meal out.  Today I have to get my overdue notes to the place I’m going in nine days time . . . they need to translate everything.

So thanks for praying for us.  In the extra busy times we realise how important it is to not be running in our own strength.  This weekend is the culmination of a week of outreach here and across the country.  Please pray for eternal fruit here and elsewhere.  Perhaps some of those children might even hear the gospel this weekend, somewhere, somehow.

This morning I need to drive up to Essex to where I’ll be speaking this evening.  Why go this morning?  Because I need to be in London and that’s the only way to make it to the meeting tonight.  So I’ll take the train into London, meet Melanie and the girls at the Royal Albert Hall for a concert, dash across town to a planning meeting, then back to Essex for the first session this evening.  Tomorrow I’m back there for the day, then again on Sunday morning.  I like the title for the weekend: Called to Church, But Not As We Know It!  Anyway, I would appreciate your prayers for this time with the good people at Moor Lane to be really fruitful and productive in eternal terms!

OK, so we don’t have to take alliteration so far.   The girls had fun yesterday thinking up tongue twisters to demonstrate alliteration.  Who says school has to be boring?  Today we have some more fun of a different variety.  Our homeschool club is joining with another homeschool group for a sports club which will be held every other week in a park not too far away.  The weather is cooperating nicely and our sunshine continues.  (Quick, soak up the vitamin D while we can!)  The children were highly pleased (that is an understatement) to see the funfair arriving yesterday at the common across the street.  So far, they are not setting up for business but you can be sure Joel-the-hawk-eye Mead will let us know the moment they open.  Oh, the torture of waiting when you are 3! Just to get in the spirit, the girls set up their own fun-fair in the back garden yesterday complete with games to play, refreshments and music.

To give a little taste of homelife . . . we have currently starting reading a Bible that was given to us as a gift -The Jesus Bible Storybook.  So far, we are really enjoying it.  We are memorizing Romans 12:9-21 at the moment too – quite the bunch of convicting verses.  In other subjects – we are winding our way through the 17th and 18th centuries in our walk through world history, Hannah is learning her times tables and trying to master cursive handwriting.  Aliyah is working on subtraction with borrowing.  Mariah is coming on really well with her reading and is starting to sound out words she sees on signs, etc.  Hard to capture in a nutshell all the goings on at the Mead house, but that was a feeble try!

Finally, here are some photos from the birthdays last month.

Aliyah’s 7th birthday was the first one in birthday season.  Here she is with her new American Girl doll, Kit – a special present from Aunt Carol.

A week later Hannah and Aliyah had a joint birthday party with some of their friends.  Peter and I took 6 girls to the science museum which was a lot of fun.

I got away with making a joint cake for them this year too!

I can’t believe I have a child nearly into double digits – makes me feel old!

The very next day, we celebrated Mariah’s 5th birthday with our good friends, the James family, who are soon to move away.

Mariah has been playing with a stuffed rabbit lately, so when she asked me to surprise her with her birthday cake, I decided to do a rabbit.

A few days later, Peter’s parents came to visit and we did one more small joint birthday celebration, this time with blueberry muffins (I had reached my quota of cakes made!).

Grandpa and Grandma gave Mariah a princess outfit.

By the time Hannah’s real birthdate came around (2nd March), we had already done our main celebrating.  But we got to meet some new friends in a very nice park.  Hannah picked out a picnic spot for us in the forest and the children ended up eating their lunch in a tree!  (A fitting birthday treat for Hannah, our outdoorsy girl.)

Poor Joel enjoyed all the birthday festivities (even making it up a tree for lunch) but was left wondering when HIS birthday will ever come.  Sorry Joel, not til November!

Birthday celebrations weren’t the only fun we had last month.  We had a friend come visit us while on her way to India to do mission work.  Her plane arrived at the same time that Peter’s did when he came back from Portland.  When we got home, jet-lagged though she and Peter were, they spent a long time playing worship songs on their guitars with Hannah while the rest of us sang (Joel using his fake guitar and microphone) and Mariah chimed in on her new glockenspiel.  What a blessing to be a part of the body of Christ!

I’m just starting to send out our latest mini-update.  If you don’t receive it by email by Friday evening, then we don’t have your latest email address.  We’d love to have it if possible!  Meanwhile, if you’d like to read the update, click here

The days are ticking by quickly at the moment.  Friday we drove to Newent in Gloucestershire, where we stayed with some friends for the weekend.  I led the preaching seminar on Saturday with a great group of people, then spoke twice on Sunday at the church.  We enjoyed our visit very much.  Then it was a late night drive home on Sunday.  Yesterday I had a meeting with some friends which meant more driving, but again an encouraging time shared together and hopefully a sense of God’s hand at work in it all.  It’s a real blessing to be enjoying sunny weather at this time of year too – other years have been wet or snowy, but we’re loving the sun and the chance to kick a football around in the back garden (yard).

Yesterday an interview I did for theologynetwork.org went online.  It’s 36 minutes long and focused on Bible teaching/preaching.  If you wanted to listen to it, you’ll find it if you click here.

Tonight I’m back in Guildford for part two of the seminar on 2Timothy.  I’d appreciate your prayer for that, thanks!

I think that’s a culturally specific term, but it fits generically for our March.  We have a busy schedule.  After speaking the last two evenings (both went really well), I am now pulling details together for this weekend in Newent, Glos.  We are all going, travelling tomorrow afternoon.  We’ll stay with friends there, I’ll lead a preaching seminar on Saturday and then speak twice on Sunday before we return.  So by the end of Sunday we’ll have 9 out of 28 preaching or teaching sessions done . . . it’s a bit mad this month!  Meanwhile the sun is shining and Melanie has taken the children over to a friend’s house for a couple of hours.