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!

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Family News, Ministry Report, Pictures, Prayer Request
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Thankful!

Melanie —  November 23, 2023

Today is Thanksgiving – a day to remember God’s goodness to us! So it seems fitting to share a long overdue photo update of family highlights from the past few months  We will shortly send out an email update with more ministry related news and prayer requests. For now, here is a photo update.  It seems like it was a summer and autumn especially full of special events and celebrations!

 

At the end of July, we had a wedding celebration here in England for Hannah and Noah. It was really special to celebrate with friends and family who weren’t able to attend the wedding in the USA. It was an afternoon full of ceilidh (Scottish dance) and cake and lots of joy!

 

In August we started school . . . this is our traditional first day of school photo. As the years pass, I’m losing students, but still loving teaching and discipling my children.

 

Our next celebration was Peter’s Mum’s 80th birthday. We had a special weekend celebrating her.

 

Together as a family, we all came up with 80 memories of Mum and then we shared them with her (10 tied to each flower stem). It was such a special time of reminiscing together.

 

Next in the celebration line was Mariah’s high school graduation!

 

We celebrated with family and friends on an extremely hot September afternoon (crazy unusual weather for England!). The ice lollies were flowing and the children loved playing in the paddling pool.

 

We are so proud of Mariah for all her hard work in her schooling!

 

Mostly we are just so thankful that she loves Jesus so much and is pouring herself out to serve and follow Him. This is more precious to us than any academic achievement.  She has become a beautiful woman, inside and out.

 

A few days after Mariah’s graduation, we flew to Greece (using some free airline vouchers) for our first ever warm beach holiday! Due to the flooding in Greece, we had to change our accommodation at the last minute but it all worked out. We stayed very near to ancient Corinth and were able to visit the site.

 

The view from our air B and B was stunning. We all kept pinching ourselves as we couldn’t believe we were in such a beautiful place!

 

The sunsets were gorgeous. Being real though, along with the beauty and the blessing, we had some family conflict that was difficult.  (This is us being vulnerable . . . holidays and family life are far from perfect!) But I think it was the catalyst for us to start talking through some issues and that has been a very good thing.

 

We came from very hot weather in Greece, back to rainy England! It’s been a very wet autumn, but I can’t remember a season where I’ve seen so many beautiful rainbows.

 

The autumn colours were a little slow in coming this year . . .

 

. . . but they got there!

 

Also in October we were finally able to redeem a Christmas gift from my sister and go to Chessington World of Adventures. It was such a fun day out – the younger girls first time at an amusement park. They were amazing and went on all the scary rides!

 

Peter and I were able to take a couple of nights away together in October too. It’s always such a gift to get uninterrupted time with each other. Even though it’s such a joy, marriage can also be challenging and we find these times away together really strengthen our relationship.

 

It’s been such a joy having Hannah and Noah nearby and having them join us for family fun like carving pumpkins for the Light Party! Please would you pray for them as they have hit a snag with Noah’s visa application. This has been very difficult for them. Pray that they will get good advice on how to proceed next.

 

Here we are all dressed up for Trinity’s Light Party! We had lots of guests join us and we pray they felt the love and light of Jesus that we tried to share with them.

 

Next was sweet Jessah’s 8th birthday. How is it possible that our youngest is 8 years old?! Here she is with her siblings holding their gift to her . . . a Charlotte doll (replica of Laura’s from Little House on the Prairie.)

 

And as of last Saturday, our boy Joel is 17 years old! (not really our boy anymore . . . he’s almost as tall as his dad and well on his way to becoming a man!)

 

On the church front, we had a joyful baptism in October too! Our church is continuing to grow and grow and we thank God for his work!

 

So. Much. Joy! Tears and smiles and hearts full of thankfulness for the miracle of salvation and growth in Christ.

These have been some of the joyful highlights for us the past few months. However, probably every photo could also tell backstories of hard things we’ve faced surrounding those joyful events.  Life in this sin-stained world is hard.  We don’t want to paint a false rosy picture.  Instead, we want to be the first to admit that we struggle with sin.  We struggle with the effects of the fall on our bodies and minds that often feel weak.  We struggle with not having enough time to do all the things that feel really important.  We struggle at times with family conflict – clashes of personalities and opinions.  We have recently also struggled with grief and sorrow over some losses and major disappointments.  Praise God that his love, his forgiveness, his strength and comfort are constant in our lives.  An anchor for our souls. And we praise Him for the hope that we have . . . that one day the tastes of joy that we experience on this broken earth will burst into fullness beyond our wildest imaginations.

Thank you for praying for us.  We are thankful for you!! Please see our mini update (coming to your inbox very soon if it hasn’t already) for more prayer requests and news.

 

 

 

 

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Albania Trip Update

Peter —  November 8, 2023

Albania – Looking Back!

This is a long overdue report of our trip to Albania in August!  It was really exciting to send a missions team for the first time as a new church.  We’ve sent individuals before, but this August we sent a team of 12 from Trinity Chippenham to serve in Albania.  That team included five Meads, which made it special for us as a family.

Our team, plus some of the local workers

We were based in the town of Lushnje, supporting a small local church there that has planted a church in a nearby village.  Despite being small themselves, they have a desire to plant a church in each of the 100 unreached villages in the area! Their passion is such a challenge and inspiration to us.  We spent 10 days working alongside the local believers.  This included five days of children’s outreach in the village, five church services in three churches (preaching, testimony, music, etc.), and several seminars for church leaders and the ladies of the Lushnje church.

I, Peter, enjoyed being on a missions team like this again.  I did quite a number of trips like this before we got married.  This time I experienced the strange combination of various worlds.  There was the world of ministry in a foreign setting which included preaching with minimal warning, through a translator, sometimes uncertain of details like expected timing, etc.  There was the world of a missions team with all the blessings and challenges that come from being involved in the leadership of a team doing ministry (actually, I was just supporting Aliyah who was the team leader and did a great job!).  There was the world of being a Dad, with four of my six children on the team.  And there was the world of being a church elder, shepherding the team from Trinity Chippenham.  It was a fun collision of worlds!  I found it stretching in some ways, but hugely encouraging in so many ways.

Here are some reflections from our children.  While I (Peter) had visited briefly in April to set up the trip, the three older Meadlings were returning as they had been on the OM team last year.  Here are some of their reflections:

Joel: “The Albania trip was a huge encouragement. I had been to the same town and village the year before, so to go again and reconnect with so many of the same people was very exciting. It was a blessing to see the perseverance the local church has in spreading the gospel to the surrounding area despite setbacks and difficulties. It’s exciting to see the way God is working in that part of the world.”  (Note: Joel is the shark in the picture with the children of Bitaj!)

Aliyah: “I was so encouraged to go back to the same village and see one of the girls who had become a Christian the last time still following the Lord. She excitedly told me how she has been reading her Bible and coming to church with her mom, and the fruit of the Spirit was evident as I spent time with her throughout the week. Saying goodbye to her was really hard knowing that she doesn’t have older girls to look up to or to disciple her in daily life. That spurred me on to keep heading in the direction of discipling where there is great need!”

Mariah: “Returning to Albania to love and serve the people there was such a great experience. Their love and devotion for the Lord was beautiful to see and through it I was able to know God’s heart for his people in a deeper way.”

We also had Kaylah with us.  As one of three under-18s on the team, Kaylah did great! She was able to share her testimony during the children’s program, and she eagerly jumped into serving each day in various ways.  Kaylah says, “I really enjoyed my first mission trip and I can’t wait to go back! It was wonderful to worship together with the Albanians at the churches we went to.  The Lord helped me in many moments when I had to step out of my comfort zone, including when I shared my testimony through translation and also trying to communicate with people each day through the language barrier.”

We are so thankful that we were able to help with evangelism and building up the church and its leadership. The Albanian church is tiny and lacks resources so it was such a privilege to come alongside them. We were also able to encourage a wonderful Ukrainian family who are serving as missionaries in Albania.  If you prayed for us in this project, thank you so much!

We were sad to leave Albania!

Albania – Looking Forward!

The believers there were eager for us to return, and we want to keep building the connection. We don’t want to just dip in and out of this mission field.  We have such a passion for building relationships and hopefully having a deeper impact as a result.  So, we have some follow-up plans!

Mariah is planning to visit the Ukrainian missionary family in January for almost three weeks.  They are having a baby and she is going to support them at this important time.

Peter was invited to return and offer some training for the local church leaders.  We are planning to go as a family (6 of us) for five days in February.  Peter will run a seminar for local church leaders, and preach in the three churches that we visited this summer.  As a family, we hope to continue to build relationships with the precious brothers and sisters in these churches and let God use us in whatever way he sees fit!  We are excited to bring Melanie and Jessah along for the first time.

And . . . .Trinity Chippenham is making plans for another team to visit Lushnje in the summer of 2024!  More information to follow, but please pray for us as we make these plans.  If you would like to get involved in praying for our family’s trips or the summer team from Trinity Chippenham, please do let us know.

Albania is largely unreached (0.5% evangelical) and we are thrilled to be able to join in with what God is doing to build his church there!  His heart is for every person on this planet to hear about his love and we want to have that heart too.

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