Archives For Melanie

Photo Memories from our USA Trip

Melanie —  December 14, 2021

This post is long overdue . . . we wanted to share with you some of the joys and blessings of our trip to the USA.  God was so gracious to us.  With Covid restrictions, we weren’t sure even up until the very last minute whether we’d be able to visit America (something we usually do as a family every 3 years).  So we booked our tickets late – 3 weeks before we left (and after recovering from Covid ourselves).  As a result of making last minute plans, and trying to regain our energy while we packed and prepared, we arrived in the USA without having made many plans (uncharacteristic for us Meads!) Actually it made for a refreshing change, and as a result, our schedule wasn’t quite as packed as it normally is (probably a good thing!)  Still, we managed to fit in a lot! Here are some stats from our trip:

4 flights taken (23 hours of flying)

6 churches visited

7 church sermons preached

2 university chapel services preached

4 seminars taught

3 states visited (4 for Peter and Melanie)

5 houses stayed in (more for some of us)

30+ families or individuals visited (I lost count!)

3 homeschool field trips taken (plus other educational visits!)

countless precious hours spent with family! (Melanie’s Mom and Dad, sister, brother in law, nieces and nephews and aunt)

Places of beauty visited: Lake Michigan, Sunriver, OR (Deschutes River), Coltiss Lake . . . Mt. St Helens, Columbia River Gorge, Bridal Veil Falls, Latourell Falls, Bonneville Dam, Graue Mill and Salt Creek, Oregon Coast . . . probably more!

When we asked our kids what their highlights were they said:

seeing people! . . . bike riding in Sunriver . . . playing pickleball . .  6am online classes . . . playing with cousins . . . waterfall walks . . . time with family . . . tubing on Coltiss Lake . . . music jam sessions with church friends.

It was also so wonderful to get some bonus time with Hannah! She came to stay with us as many weekends as she could and her boyfriend Noah came to OR for a week.  So we were able to spend some good time with him too.

In summary, we had a very blessed and encouraging trip! God was so good to us.  It’s not always easy having your heart in several places.  And it wasn’t easy to leave Oregon especially.  But we thank God for blessing us with this amazing trip and such wonderful friends and family. He provided for us so generously. Here are some photos . . . first of some cousin fun! . . .

 

 

It was so sweet to get time with Hannah.

 

I love this girl so much.

 

It was so special getting to visit Hannah on campus at Corban and getting to meet her friends, professors. Peter was able to speak at 2 chapel meetings and I even got to attend some classes with her! Mariah and Joel both spent a couple nights there too. It was so great being able spend some time in her world.

 

It was also such a joy to get time with my sister.

 

Here’s the whole Papworth/Hickman/Mead clan (sadly minus Aliyah!)

 

My sister’s dog Charley became a good friend.

 

The kids really enjoyed reconnecting wtih friends and playing with various animals we encountered! Here they are with Kaylah’s penpal Samantha.

 

The autumn colours were stunning!

 

Beautiful Deschutes River (near Sunriver – central Oregon)

 

Bridal Veil Falls in the Columbia River Gorge. This is a place we visited when we were first getting to know each other. Fun to go back after 24 years!

 

We took a long but beautiful hike to Latourell Falls, also in the Columbia River Gorge. My parents were troopers . . . they did so well!

 

And here we are at one of the largest cedar trees on the west coast. It was fun taking Noah (who is from Missouri) to the coast, even though it was coooold!

We had a great visit at Moody Bible Institute – where Aliyah may end up attending.

 

It was a joy to spend time in Chicago with our good friends who were so hospitable and kind to us.

 

And of course it wouldn’t be a visit to Chicago without time with Aunt Carol. Here she is with Kaylah and Jessah at Salt Creek after a fun and educational visit to Graue Mill.

 

It had been a long time since we had seen Aunt Carol so the time was very special.

 

We had a fun early 6th birthday celebration for Jessah while we were at my aunt’s house.

 

Thank you for praying for our trip! God answered so many prayers and we were able to achieve the things we set out to do – mostly strengthen connections with people we love . . . family, friends, churches and prayer and financial support partners. With the world the way it is, we don’t know when we will be able to visit next.  So we are savouring the memories and thanking God for his kindness.

 

 

 

In Family News, Ministry Report, Pictures
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Saying Goodbye

Melanie —  November 4, 2021

After two months in the USA, we are back home in Chippenham! The last 2 months have been a wonderful blessing to our family.  God provided for us in so many ways and we were able to connect with many, many dear friends and of course my (Melanie’s) family.  We all soaked up the sweet fellowship and also God’s beautiful creation in Oregon (very different than the beauty here in England).  We have many photos to share . . . watch this space for another post coming soon which will be full of photos from our trip!

For now, we’d like to travel back in time a little bit and share some photos from our last few weeks before we left home (August).  No only did we (Peter and I and the 4 youngest kids) leave for the USA at the end of August, our beloved daughter, Aliyah, left home too.  She flew to the Bahamas to meet the OM ship, Logos Hope, where is she now spending a year on board.  She is absolutely loving it and has so far visited the Bahamas, St. Lucia, Barbados and is currently in the middle of a 2-week voyage across the Atlantic to Africa.  We are so thrilled for her to be able to have this experience serving the Lord alongside a crew of people who come from many different nations. (If you aren’t already getting her updates and would like to, please follow this link to sign up.)

Even though we were and are, cheering Aliyah on in her adventure with Jesus, it was pretty tough to say goodbye.  This girl is an integral part of our family and we all love her dearly.  We all shed many tears as we hugged at the airport with aching hearts . . . as we’ve come home to Chippenham, it’s hit us all over again that she’s gone – the house just isn’t the same without her.  We are thankful to the God who holds us all in his hands as are far apart from her (and of course from Hannah too).  Peter and I have always said that we wanted to raise our children to fly, to launch out and change the world for Jesus. She belongs to the Lord, not to us and it’s a joy to watch her following Him.

Here are some photos from a family photo shoot we did (sadly due to us having Covid, we didn’t fit this in before Hannah left so she is missing from the photos!)

 

 

 

Before we left, we were able to have a graduation celebration for Aliyah, as well as a goodbye party.  Thankfully we all recovered from Covid in time to make it fit before we all left! Here are some photos from those events as well as some of her senior pictures (an American tradition). A good friend of ours took the photos when Aliyah was visiting the USA in April.

The group of us that gathered to celebrate Aliyah’s high school graduation.

Friends at her goodbye party






Oh my goodness, we love this girl so much and she will always be close in our hearts no matter where she is in the world.  Please pray for her, for God to be at work in and through her as she serves this year on the Logos Hope.  And please pray for us as we adjust to life at home without her.  Watch this space for more posts soon with a report and photos from our time in the USA!

 

 

 

In Family News, Pictures, Uncategorized
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Mead Family – Covid Update no. 3

Melanie —  August 10, 2021

Good news!  Peter and I both seem to be improving.  Thank you so much if you were praying for us.  In my last post I said Peter was on day 10.  I was mistaken about that, as he’s actually now had Covid for 2 weeks.  I guess the days have all blurred together. We were able to speak to the Covid care team this morning and they are satisfied that Peter’s blood oxygen levels are OK and not of concern. This was really reassuring to hear as we’ve been confused as to what we need to be concerned about. While we are thankful for improvement, we are still very fatigued and not functioning normally yet.  I think Peter is especially feeling discouraged as he has been unwell for so long.  So we’d definitely appreciate your continued prayers to figure out how to pace ourselves as we recover. We realise our experience is being repeated many times over around the world and we are praying for all of our friends who are also suffering from Covid. It’s definitely not an easy road for many.

In other news, we were able to book our tickets to go to the USA in a few weeks.  Please pray for us as we plan our trip to be able to have the energy we need to prepare and then do the travelling.  We will be in touch more about our trip in the next weeks.

It’s not much fun being ill and weak, but we are trusting that in our weakness, God can shine through. I read these verses this morning.

27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”[d]

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