Our trip to the USA was extremely busy, but full of blessings and answered prayers! Thank you so much for praying for us while we were travelling. We know that God used your prayers to strengthen us in the midst of the non-stop schedule. Here are some stats: 47 days, 4 flights, 1 train ride, 2 snowstorms, 39x Peter speaking (including 2 Cor Deo intensives, one youth retreat, two seminars, 1 chapel service, 1 church podcast, 1 radio show, 1 advent series of videos pre-recorded, 3 adult Sunday School classes), 5 churches visited, 9x packing our bags, dozens of prayer partners and friend connections, two daughters visited! Whew!
God so graciously sustained us through these seven weeks. The highlights for us were spending time with precious friends and family. And being able to serve and love people in various settings – both in homes and in churches. We all really enjoyed the wintery weather too, especially the snow which we don’t often get in the UK!
We have many photos to share . . . this will be a long post! We hope you enjoy seeing a little glimpse of our trip! Although we were very, very busy with ministry, we were so blessed to also have time with family. The majority of the photos are focused on family times and the beauty of creation as it wasn’t always appropriate tor easy to take them in settings with prayer partners and ministry moments.
(NOTE: the photo above is our reunion in Missouri with Aliyah and Mariah as they came down to help at the youth weekend at Wildwood Church).
Unloading at Heathrow . . . here we go! Time to fly to Oregon! This was our first ever direct flight to Portland.
The group that did the Cor Deo intensive at our sending church in Oregon. So many of them said that these days were transformational for them, which we praise God for.
Peter and I, with my parents. They are still full of lots of energy and stay busy serving the Lord. What a gift they have been in my life.
We celebrated Kaylah’s birthday by going bowling as an extended family.
She and my dad have their birthdays one day apart so it was fun to have a joint celebration.
Now we have another teenager! We love this precious girl so much.
As I have done with all of my girls, I took Kaylah away for a two days and one night together. We had lots of fun looking at used bookshops and charity shops (they are gigantic in the USA!!), playing bananagrams, eating out a couple of times and reading in the massive library there. Sweet times!
A huge highlight for us all was staying with my sister and her family. They have a basement which they graciously let us stay in the whole time we were in western Oregon. We made lots of precious memories.
The cousins had a fabulous time together! Dance shows, time outdoors, games and endless creative ideas. . . sweet to think we’ll get to spend more time with the whole family soon when they come to the UK for Aliyah’s wedding.
Packing and unpacking was a frequent feature of the trip!! Here we are trying to cram the last bits in for the 4 hour trip to central OR. Where there’s a will, there’s a way!!
On that car trip, we actually drove over Mt. Hood in a snowstorm! It was a pretty fun adventure. And very atmospheric and beautiful.
Peter, my British husband, even figured out how to put snow chains on the tyres with Joel assisting. I was well impressed!
When we got to Sunriver, it felt like we were in Narnia! Sooooo beautiful!
The icicles were incredible.
God’s creativity in his world is just amazing.
We even discovered a sledding hill on the last day and were able to borrow some sleds.
The drive home, back over Mt. Hood, was equally snowy and Narnia-like (minus the cars of course!).
All too soon it was time to leave Oregon.
Our next location was St. Louis, Missouri where Peter was the speaker at their annual Discipleship Now youth weekend. It was so fun that Aliyah and Mariah could come down from Chicago to help as leaders. Kaylah and Joel participated as youth and made some friends. (Joel is missing from this photo).
Peter spoke from the gospel of John on the subject of Exchange (death to life, hate to love, self for Christ and comfort for calling). I know I’m biased but I thought they were amazing messages. I loved getting to hear him speak, as he often travels to events like this without me.
The youth in their session reflecting on what God had taught them over the weekend.
Missouri is also where we experienced our second snowstorm and the temperatures were extremely cold (-23 C was the lowest).
Jessah with fistfuls of icicles!!
Our next stop was Chicago (5 hour train ride from St. Louis). It was especially sweet to join Aliyah and Mariah on their current “home turf.”
It was so fun getting to enter their world a little bit and see where they study, work and socialise. We loved meeting their friends too. Here’s Mariah in her public safety work uniform. She loves her job!
Jessah and Kaylah were delighted with their sleepovers with their big sisters in their dorm.
And they even got to go to work with Aliyah at the sports centre.
What joy to watch our children loving each other!
Joel and Aliyah on a run together. Joel stayed in the dorm at Moody too and got a taste for student life. He’s recently been accepted to study at Moody beginning in August!
We were also able to spend some time with my Aunt Carol while we were in Chicago. As always, she was a wonderful and gracious host.
Peter shared a powerful message with the student body in their Tuesday chapel. (Click here to go to the video and watch.)
And he was privileged to speak at the historic Moody Church on Sunday (Click here for the sermon.)
He was also able to be on Moody Radio (Chris Fabry show – click here to listen).
Family . . . what a gift!
After a family hug and prayer together, it was time to head for the airport.
One of Aliyah and Michael’s official engagement photos. Next time we see them, it will be nearly time for their wedding! It’s less than 2 months away now and we are all excited.
Wow, if you got this far, well done! I know this was a super long post, but we wanted to give you a flavour of our trip and share a few highlights. We are back full swing into normal life here in Chippenham. We’d appreciate prayer for ongoing ministry at Trinity Chippenham including the challenges that are coming with growth. We are praying especially about leadership development as well as God’s provision for finances for the building we are looking at buying. As a family, we are also taking a 5 day trip to the Czech Republic at the end of April where Peter will be speaking at a Josiah Venture missionary conference. It is a privilege to serve Jesus and we need His grace and wisdom so much every day. Thank you for praying for us!
