End of October

Melanie —  October 24, 2017

 

Wow, where has this month gone? We have some exciting things coming up and some great reasons to give thanks, including the safe birth of a baby girl to our good friends today – yay for baby girls!

Another praise . . . just yesterday, Peter’s parents were able to exchange contracts on their house move.  Since the start of the year, we’ve been trying to support them as they prepared their house to go on the market and looked for a new one (on one level) in Chippenham.  The process has definitely had its twists and turns and we’ve seen that what WE think best is not always God’s plan.  It’s increased our faith and we are so thankful for God’s goodness in providing them a house very near to us that fits their needs.  We look forward to spending more time with them and being able to support them in the years to come.  Moving day, Lord willing, will be 8th of November!  Our children are very excited to have Grandma and Grandpa near and are already making plans to ride their bikes over there regularly.

Here is Grandma Mead with Jessah and Kaylah.

We’ve had a great sermon series on the Reformation going on at church – to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses to the church door at Wittenberg.  Click here to access the Trinity Chippenham sermons or you can always subscribe to them in iTunes.  Our church’s annual Light Party (Halloween alternative) is coming up this Saturday!  Please pray for a great turn out and that it would be a fun and fruitful time of connecting with people.  The girls and I are quite involved in the planning and preparation so please pray it all comes together.

My children are becoming my right hand helpers in preparing for church events. They do more baking than I do nowadays! Here they are making cookies for the church weekend away.

Hannah is currently out on her silver Duke of Edinburgh expedition.  For those of you not in the UK, the D of E programme is an award scheme to help young people learn new skills, do charity work and participate in sports.  For each level, they do a camping expedition out in the countryside where they work together in a team to travel from one location to another, using maps, compasses, etc.  Hannah missed her expedition in July due to illness so we were so thankful that she stayed healthy for this one (especially as we had a tummy bug in the house last week!). We have been praying that God will use her in some way over these three days as he orchestrated events so she’d be on this expedition and not the one she prepared for in July.

Since we’re talking about Hannah, did you know she has a blog now where she is sharing her writing? Click here to check it out.  We’re delighted at the way she’s developing as a young writer.

Next week, Hannah will be joining the Cor Deo Reformation intensive (her first Cor Deo intensive).  We are excited to host this here in Chippenham and to welcome people from all over the country and even a few international guests! Please pray for Peter as he teaches and for it have a great impact on all who are participating.

Here are some recent photos to give you a flavour of life over the past few weeks.

 

My aunt Carol visited in September. Here she is with the older five children when she took them on a private tour of the Cotswolds. They all really enjoyed it.

 

Here are the older 5 Meadlings in the beautiful Cotswolds.

 

Kaylah has been loving her swimming lessons, which she started in May.

 

And Joel has been loving playing football on a team which he also started a few months ago. They’ve had a lot of character building losses, but he’s having a good time anyway!

 

Here’s Aliyah hard at work . . . aunt Carol helped her and Aliyah redecorate their bedroom.

 

Kaylah and Jessah continue to bring us much joy and delight with all their sweet and funny ways.

 

Here they are helping Mariah and I shop for flowers. Mariah did some planting for a school project.

 

Couldn’t resist sharing this one . . . Kaylah reading to her sister at dinner.

 

Dynamic Duo – two budding musicians?!

 

On a recent (and rare) sunny day, we decided to all go to Bowood House . . . we love it there and have passes which were gifted to us. The older girls came too – it was such a special afternoon with all 6 of my children.

 

Aliyah and Jessah . . .can’t believe Jessah is about to turn two!

 

I love this photo with all six of them.

 

Happy autumn to everyone and Happy Reformation Day for next Tuesday! We are hosting a film night for our church family kids at our house that evening.  We’re watching the Torchlighter’s video on Martin Luther.  Great for adults and kids alike!  If you don’t already know about Jelly Telly, check it out. It’s a great source of wholesome Christian tv for kids.  Members can access all of the Torchlighter’s videos there or get them “on demand” on the Torchlighter’s site.  Why not invite some kids over and watch it as a little Reformation Day celebration?

Thank you Father, that our salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone.

Ephesians 2: 8-9 – For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.