Archives For Prayer Request

A Busy Couple of Weeks

Peter —  October 16, 2024

We are just entering into a twelve-day period in which I am preaching or teaching 15 sessions. We knew it would be busy.  Let me explain how that happened.  We know we need to guard our schedules and be careful not to say yes to everything.  We say no quite frequently (I had to decline an invitation for this evening!)  But in the case of these two weeks, we already had some things lined up when extra invitations came that we both felt were important.  We agreed on a plan to make it more manageable for us as a family.

So, what are the 15 sessions?

Today, I will teach for three hours at Union School of Theology, using Zoom. It is a first-year Bible handling and preaching class.

I am in Guildford this weekend at a church I visit twice yearly.  I have five sessions spread through Saturday afternoon, evening and Sunday morning.  Two of these sessions involve training preachers. I have an evening session on how to respond to a shifting culture, and then I preach twice on Sunday morning.

I am travelling to Suffolk next week to speak at a Keswick Living Word event.  This is a gathering of local believers under the Keswick banner, where I will preach for three evenings from 2 Corinthians 3-5 on the New Covenant.  I also have two leaders workshops during the day.

Then, the following weekend, we will head to Surrey. On the morning of the 27th, I will preach at Oakhall Church from Galatians, then return to Trinity to speak in our Judges series in the afternoon.

There it is, fifteen sessions in twelve days.  Prayer is appreciated for travel, family relationships, and each session to make a difference.

Summer news!

Melanie —  July 12, 2024

 

It’s been an eventful few months since we last updated our website.  We are thankful for God’s faithfulness and kindness to us.  We had Hannah’s husband Noah’s parents and brother come to visit us in April.  We had such a great month together, including a special week away together on the Devon coast.  It was a beautiful area and we made lots of memories.  Above you can see the 11 of us on Peter’s birthday. (We missed Aliyah of course!)

 

The sea was oh so cold! But it didn’t stop Peter and some of the kids from going in!

 

 

Some of us enjoyed it from a distance.

 

In May Peter and I were blessed with a special trip to Italy where we met my sister and her husband.

 

We are both celebrating our 25th wedding anniversaries this summer. We had such a sweet time together and a few adventures too (the big one being a fire in the place where we stayed. . . it’s a story . . . God really protected us!)

 

 

Here we are on our actual anniversary. We are so thankful for each other and for the last 25 years God has given us together.

 

All the girls are great at baking and Jessah’s now come into her own as a baker. Her specialty is snickerdoodles (an American cinnamon sugar cookie!).

 

Sisters! We are so thankful for the relationships our kids have with each other. Yes, of course at times they don’t get along, but they really do have strong bonds. The younger girls are going to miss Mariah so much when she goes to Bible college in a few weeks!

 

Aliyah came home from Bible college in June and Kaylah and Jessah have been loving it.

 

Me too!

 

A huge highlight of the summer has been having Aliyah’s boyfriend Michael visiting us. A few days after he arrived, he proposed to her!

 

Here is the moment at Lulworth Cove!

 

Mariah took some lovely photos!

 

 

 

Aliyah and Michael have been dating for a year and a half.  In that time, we have all grown to love Michael.  We had some time with him in the USA last year while we were there for Hannah’s wedding and then he spent a few weeks here in England last summer with us too.  He is a godly guy who loves the Lord and wants to serve Him.  We can’t wait to see what God is going to do with these two for His glory!  Lord willing, they will get married at the end of May next year.

 

It’s been such a joy for me to have all of my children home at the same time. It’s been a very busy house, but joyful!

 

At the end of June, TC had a youth weekend away. All our older kids plus Noah and Michael went as leaders and Joel and Kaylah as youth participants.

 

The next big event on the calendar is the arrival of Hannah and Noah’s baby, due in just a few weeks. We just had a baby shower for  them last weekend.  Please pray for the baby’s safe arrival.

 

God had such a beautiful idea when he created families!

We are so thankful to God for sustaining us these past months.  Peter and I have felt very maxed out at times in terms of ministry – preaching, life group, pastoral care, leadership and more, and of course parenting, our primary ministry.  There have been many moments of exhaustion but also many joyful ones.  We feel so privileged that the Lord gives us so many opportunities to serve him.  Our home has also been full, not only with our children, but also full of many visitors and we have more to come in the next few weeks.  Please keep praying for us to abide in Christ and draw all we need from him.  Also pray for Peter, Joel and Aliyah as they go to Albania with the TC team at the end of July.  God is so good and he is worth pouring ourselves out for!

 

 

Christmas fun and the start of 2024

Melanie —  February 11, 2024

We are happy to share a little update with you from the past few months!  December feels a long time ago now.  We had a special month. With Aliyah home, we were all together as a family.  These days are times to treasure!

 

Sisters!

 

Aliyah came with the younger girls and I to a homeschool Christmas event at a Zoo Farm. We had such a sweet time together.

 

A big focus of the month was our church’s Nativity musical outreach. There were 3 performances over two days and we rejoice that the gospel was so clearly shared!

 

It involved a huge number of our church family and was truly amazing! We had many people attend who did not know Jesus. We pray that the Spirit will continue to remind them of the message they heard. 

 

Peter and Joel were Roman soldiers! They stayed in character as they welcomed people into the building – I think they scared a few people!

 

Mariah was Mary and did a wonderful job acting and singing.

 

Jessah was a villager child and in another scene she was a crazy runaway sheep!

 

Hannah was a villager and in another scene, a wise woman!

 

Kaylah had an important behind the scenes role – controlling all the recorded audios (sound effects, music, etc). I got to watch all three performances and I was so moved every time.  Of course I was really proud of my family but actually my heart was so warmed to see so many of our church family playing their roles too. We had young kids controlling spotlights (under adult supervision), an advertising/social media team, musicians performing live music, a catering team, a backstage team helping the actors with timings, make-up, props, etc. and more! It was so beautiful to see all the parts of the body of Christ working together to do something to share Jesus with our community.  We pray for much fruit!

 

Christmas was extra special as it was the first one with Noah and Hannah with us as a married couple!

 

As is our tradition, we had Grandpa and Grandma Mead join us for Christmas afternoon and evening dinner.

 

In early January, Mariah went to Albania to help a dear Ukranian missionary friend who was having a baby. She thoroughly enjoyed her time there!

 

The boys of her family became like brothers to her.

 

The same day Mariah left, Aliyah left for Canada to visit her boyfriend, Michael and then went back to Moody for the new semester. She seems to be thriving there in her classes and many ministry opportunities.  Hannah and Noah left for the USA at the end of January in order to re-apply for his UK visa.  We are thanking God that the first appointment he needed came through very quickly and the visa in now in process.  Hannah is working remotely at the moment, but will need to return to the UK for work in mid-Marc.h We are asking God for a super speedy visa approval process for Noah so they can be apart as little as possible.  We miss them but we are so happy they are getting this time with Noah’s family – an unplanned visit but we hope a blessed one.

 

Before they left, Hannah gifted Kaylah with an early birthday present – a second-hand but very nice camera that had belonged to her. Kaylah was thrilled!

 

Thank you for praying for our family!  We’ll be sending out an email update shortly that will have more ministry news.  We are thankful to be a team with you!