Poured Out

Our glorious sunny (and hot!) weather is continuing here in our part of the United Kingdom.  It is a little too hot for my liking but we aren’t complaining . . . just soaking up as much vitamin D as possible to make up for the rest of the year when it is so rainy.  In preparation for our upcoming move, we have been having a HUGE clearout and de-clutter.  My friend Michelle came over yesterday and helped me do most of the playroom yesterday and today the older girls and I did their room.  Much, much rubbish taken out and many bags for charity shop, etc.  We are thinking of having a sale out front of our house soon and giving the proceeds to Open Doors.  The charity shop would be easier but the kids are very keen to have the sale.    The Lord has blessed us and friends have given us money to pay for us to use a moving company.  So I guess in reality we wouldn’t  have to be doing all this decluttering as the movers will be packing us but it sure will be nice to start fresh in our new house.  I can’t believe just the sheer amount of rubbish that has been living in our house!  This morning’s message at church was from Colossians 3 and included the verses about putting to death the deeds of the sinful nature and getting rid of sins of the tongue, etc.  The “rubbish” we harbor in our lives is far more serious than the rubbish hanging around in our houses . . . very convicting for me . . . maybe its time for a spiritual clear-out.

So, three weeks from tomorrow the big move happens.  I have a long list of people to arrange to get together with before we go.  Thankfully, since we don’t have to pack, we should have plenty of time to spend with friends.   I am feeling good physically so that is helping immensely with all the busyness.  Peter has had a marathon day, well a marathon weekend actually.  He left yesterday at 5:30am and got home at 3:30 pm.  Then he left at 9am this morning for the church he preached at and came back at 6pm (after spending hours in traffic) just in time to get to the Oakhall evening service to preach there.  Then he went off to some friends’ house to watch the World Cup final which was recorded.  The kids and I went to some other friends’ house late this afternoon and the children had a blast playing in the paddling pool and having water fights.  There are so many people we will miss so much.

A few more tidbits from life around here . . . Joel’s precious bear-bear went missing for 2 days but was found this morning on our windowsill behind the lace curtain.  I think Peter and I stressed about it even more than Joel did! . . . Our baby bunnies are growing like crazy.  They are the cutest things.  The girls have named them (uh-oh!) . . . Sunny, Daffodil, Patches and Sleepy (the runt).  We are hoping Daffodil is a girl because we would like to keep her.  The rest need to find good homes!  They will be moving with us to Chippenham because they won’t be old enough to leave their mum in 3 weeks time.  OK, it is late and I need to clean up the kitchen before I sleep.  Thank you for praying for us in this busy time.  I am really feeling relaxed (I think especially due to us having a moving company AND all the prayer that I am sure is going up for us).  We are very thankful for God’s amazing goodness in our lives.

The sun is shining and the green view out of the window in front of me is great . . . and will be missed when we move (my office window view will be another house, nevertheless, at least it’s an office, that’s a very positive thing to look forward to!)  I have about an hour to finish the handouts for tomorrow, then I’m off to town to get them copied.  We’re looking forward to spending the evening with good friends.  Tomorrow morning I need to leave about the time the birds have their ten minutes of orality, for a morning seminar up in Letchworth.  How to help new Christians grow . . . what a great subject!  Then I come home to hang out with the family for the rest of the day.  Sunday I’m back in Letchworth in the morning, then speaking at Oakhall in the evening (finishing off a 3-part Micah series).  A busy weekend, but should be a good one (despite the lack of teams of interest from our perspective in the world cup final!)

We just heard that we have the house we applied for last week, so we’ll be moving at the start of August! This is exciting news for us. So some of our conversations relate to what will go where in respect to the various rooms in the house. This allows an overly perfect segue into the subject of this post! Last week I mentioned the new Cor Deo site which has enjoyed a successful facelift surgery in recent days. One of the things we hope will come of that is a weekly conversation prompted by posts from myself and Ron. Today I posted the first real Cor Deo post on the site (and it is about which room our spiritual life really grows in – see the connection?)

Please take a look, and if possible, please add a thoughtful comment – we would really appreciate that! Here is the link that if you click it, you’ll find yourself there, at www.cordeo.org.uk!

After quite a lot of work behind the scenes, the new look Cor Deo site is now live.  If you haven’t visited for a while, please take a look.  Actually, if you haven’t visited for two days, it is worth taking a look!  As well as the facelift, the site now has news updates integrated with the new Cor Deo blog which will start in earnest next week.  We’ll be using the site for a weekly conversation on subjects like Bible, theology, spirituality, pastoral ministry, missions, church history, preaching, the Trinity, prayer, etc.  We would love it if you followed the site and got involved in the conversation now and then.

You can follow the site (i.e. know when posts appear) via the rss feed on the site, or via facebook.com/cordeo, or twitter.com/cordeoblog, or on NetworkedBlogs if you have that app, etc.  You could even do the old fashioned thing and simply remember to visit the site regularly!  Ron and I will alternate who starts the conversation.

If you click here you will go straight to the new blog.

We bumped into our friend who has been looking after the rabbits in our absence.  Dandy is doing well and has a load of little rabbits now just over a week old.  But Daisy died a couple of days after we left.  We told the children at lunch time.  We feel for them, and for our friend who feels terrible about the whole thing (not his fault in the slightest).  So I suppose we are grief counseling for the first pet death in the children’s lives.  If you think of them, please pray especially for Aliyah. 

We were woken at 11:30 this morning by Hannah.  That’s a bit different from the very early starts when we travelled the other way two months ago! 

Just a quick note to say we are safely back.  We left Melanie’s parents’ at 7am and got here at noon on Friday (which doesn’t feel like Friday, of course!)  On the flight Joel and Hannah got a decent half night of sleep, Aliyah and Mommy got less, Mariah got almost none and Daddy enjoyed being able to plug his computer in and get a good chunk of work done (with children sleeping against each arm!)  We all slept for two hours after we got home, fought the insane idea of getting up and now are continuing to unpack.  If you see any of us in the next few hours and we seem like zombies (or if the children are crying), you’ll understand!  Can’t wait for sleep again tonight . . . and to see friends here in the next few days.  Thanks for praying for our journey.

Yesterday we packed at the house in Sunriver to move back to Forest Grove where we packed to head back to Hillsboro where we are now packed to head back to Caterham (where we’ll pack to head to Chippenham).  When we came our bags were well under the limit, but now they are all on the limit (and we have to take one extra).  We leave here at 7am tomorrow morning, flying via Houston and arriving in London at 9:25am on Friday.  Please pray for the children to travel well and for us all to remain well (in the airborne germ recycling cylinders).  We’ve been so blessed on this trip, but we’re very ready to see England again.  It is always sad to say goodbye to family and friends here, especially when we don’t know when we’ll be able to visit again.  Anyway, if you missed the photos Melanie put on yesterday, please take a look on pouredout.org

The last 2 months here in the USA have been wonderful.  We are so grateful to the Lord and His people for providing us with accomodation, vehicles, many meals and sweet fellowship.  I really did TRY to narrow down the photos . . . but still ended up with quite a few I wanted to share.  I hope you will enjoy them.

We arrived in Chicago on April 28th . . . Aunt Carol wasted no time in buying Joel a Chicago Cubs t-shirt (baseball team for you Brits!)  It took him a few days to figure out that baseball wasn’t the same as football.  He kept demo-ing his “baseball” skills with huge kicks! At various random moments, we’d hear a Joely voice shouting, “Go Cubs!” (or as it was a few times, “Go Cups!”)

We made lots of great memories in Chicago with Aunt Carol.  Here are Hannah and Mariah at the Brookfield zoo . . the animals were hard to spot that day but at least we got up close and personal with this lion.

We were able to connect with many old and new friends in Chicago.  The girls loved dressing up at the home of some of our good friends.

Aunt Carol was a wonderful and gracious host during our 3 week stay with her.

The weather was beautiful most of the time we were there and so the children really enjoyed riding bikes outside.  Mariah is sporting her new Little House on the Prairie bonnet in this photo.

We got to go visit our good friends, Roger and Maxine in another part of Illinois. Here are Joel and Mariah with Roger.

One of our favourite outings in Chicago was our visit to Kline Creek Farm, a living -history farm set in the 1890s time period.

I don’t have any photos that will do the Creation Museum justice, but here is a funny one of Hannah holding up a dinosaur outside the entrance.  It was a fantastic visit that we will never forget!

Ride ‘em cowgirls (oh, and cowboy!)

Here’s all of us (minus me, who took the pic), eating in Noah’s Cafe.

From Chicago, we flew onto Oregon where the highlight was getting introduced (or re-introduced) to Matthew and Claire!

Story-time with Auntie Amy!

The girls absolutely adored their baby cousin, Claire.  They were all eager for their turn to feed her!

Here is knight Matthew posing with the not-so evil dragon Joel!

We had a special visit with our good friends, Gabe and Kari Meiers, home from Boliva where they are missionaries.  Hard to believe that this crowd has been produced from just 2 couples!

Mariah amazed us all at church family camp by declaring that she was going to do the “zip-line.”

She was the first Mead family member to do the zip-line (which became a highlight of camp for the girls!) at just 5 years old.  The girls and Peter also did the giant swing where you drop about 50 feet from the top of a tree.

Joel preferred to hang out on the nearest motorized vehicle, declaring that when HE was five, he’d do the zip-line.

Couldn’t resist throwing this one of Hannah in here.  Thanks for the glasses, Kari.  They were a hit!

Wherever you saw Claire, Aliyah was usually nearby.  Aliyah has a very special way with babies and small children, actually all our girls do.

Gathering eggs at our friend Chris’ house . . .

We also got to ride her horse, which was a real adventure!  Hannah did great, even though the horse hadn’t been ridden in 1.5 yrs!

Hannah spent lots of time talking with Grandma about the “good old days.”  Here she is in Grandma’s wedding dress.

At the Oregon Museum of Science and Industy, I think this was one of the funnest moments the kids had with their cousin Matthew – hiding in lockers.

We made so many special – and goofy – memories with Matthew . . .

. . . and of course with Claire-Bear too.  She is sweetness personified.

Here is Mariah and her friend Katie – all dressed up!

Our friends, the Fishes, were very gracious hosts.  It was wonderful to spend time with them and of course their dog Heidi, who Mariah was never far away from! (She seems to have conquered her fear of dogs on this trip.)

Matthew and Joel with Mo’s hats on . . . during our lunch at the beach.

Joel surprised us by insisting on ordering Mo’s famous clam chowder (which he’d never eaten before).  He and daddy ate every bite!

Our family hasn’t been to the beach in years!  Even though it was cloudy, it didn’t rain and we actually came home a little sun-burned.  It was a glorious afternoon of wading (swimming in Hannah’s case!), sand castles and time with Auntie Amy, Matthew and Claire.

The Papworth lady descendants.

Joel, daddy and Matthew built a sand castle.  When they were done, they marched around it 7 times singing “Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho” and then smashed it!

This was the result!!

Feet that so often walk on the soil of countries so far away from each other . . . together today.

It’s been a special trip . . . but now it’s time to hit the road for home, walking the path that God has for us.  We look to “that day” when there will be no more goodbyes to family and precious friends and we’ll have all eternity to enjoy the Lord together.

We fly out on Thurs. a.m. Portland time and arrive in London Friday a.m. London time.  All the Meads are excited to return home to the adventures God has ahead for us.  We think we may have found an ideal house to rent in Chippenham and are in the process of applying to rent it. Please pray that God will keep it for us til we get back if it is truly the place He has for us.  Thank you for your prayers and love for us.

PS Believe it or not, I might have some more photos to share when we get home. I haven’t downloaded for the past week or two! So watch this space.

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Sorry this site has been so quiet lately.  We have had a great and busy time with friends and stayed in two houses since I last wrote.  Today we’re off to Bend in central Oregon for a couple of days away.  We will be meeting up with some friends we haven’t seen in a while, but hopefully the pace of life will be calmer for a couple of days and we’ll be able to hang out as a family of six (instead of being in five different locations as we have been at times this week!)  Tomorrow morning I’ll be speaking at a church in Sunriver, so we are looking forward to making new connections there and hopefully to be a blessing to them.  Our update has just gone out by email, so if you didn’t receive the June update, please let us know so we have your latest email address.