All 8 of us Meads together . . . a rare moment

We are thanking God for a really blessed summer!  It was such a joy to have Aliyah and Hannah back home and it was wonderful that Hannah’s fiance Noah could join us for a good portion of the summer too. The picture above was taken during a week of holiday that we had all together in Norfolk.  With everyone’s work and travelling schedules promising to be very busy, I savoured this week where we were able to be all together.  We took long walks in the surrounding countryside, played games, slept, read, enjoyed eating together and did lots of swimming in the heated pool on the property where we stayed. Here are some more photos from that week:

We are excited to announce that on May 19th, Noah Mozingo asked Hannah to marry him and she said YES! They plan to get married on 3 June 2023. We are absolutely thrilled that God has brought Hannah such a wonderful and godly man. He already feels very much part of our family.

The summer was filled with foreign trips for our older kids.  Mariah spent a month in Spain, studying Spanish.  Once Aliyah got back from her year on the Logos Hope and in Burundi, she travelled to Romania and Malta to visit ship contacts and then with Mariah and Joel to Albania for a ten day mission trip outreach.  They had a fantastic trip and I think they would all say it was a life-changing time.  Hannah and her college roommate Mallory were able to travel to Norway, Sweden and Denmark and thoroughly enjoyed it. Peter stayed busy with two Cor Deo intensives (Aliyah, Mariah, Joel, Noah and I were all able to attend one and were greatly blessed) plus our ongoing ministry responsibilities at Trinity Chippenham.  We continue to praise God for growth and are asking him to provide all we need to shepherd the growing church body. Lives are being changed and that is so exciting!

Here are some more photos from the summer/early autumn . . .

What a joy it was for us to have Aliyah home. Here she is with the younger girls at our favourite Bowood House photo spot.

Kaylah and Jessah have absolutely loved the art classes they’ve been attending with our friend Jupy. She is a wonderful teacher and the time they spend with her and their friends is a real highlight of their week.

Kaylah has also enjoyed the Hearts and Hands group at church (a group to encourage friendship and serving). Here are the girls with all the Bible verses they coloured and gave to residents at a retirement home. They were such a blessing as they sang and chatted with the residents.

Another creative endeavour . . . the Logos Hope built out of magnatiles in their bedroom!

We didn’t grow as much veg as in previous years, but we did manage to harvest and eat a bit. We still currently have tomatoes trying to ripen in our cool autumn weather!

The younger girls have been thrilled to be able to do some horse riding recently. It’s fun to see them improving and enjoying it so much.

Right before Aliyah, Hannah and Noah left, we had a wonderful evening as a family in Bradford on Avon, a beautiful town near us. Precious memories, especially for me as a mum.

The past few weeks have been filled with starting back to homeschooling and regular activities (music, Spanish and art lessons).  We actually started school in mid-August as we are anticipating finishing early next year due to Hannah and Noah’s wedding. It’s been an adjustment for all of us, but we are gradually finding good rhythms and routines.  Mariah recently got a job at a nearby retirement home which she’s very excited about. She’s also enjoying teaching music lessons and mentoring younger girls from church. Joel is well into his long distance running.  He’s done several 10Ks and runs a 5K park run every Saturday.  He’s doing so well with his schoolwork and staying on top of everything. They are both heavily involved in the youth group.  My parents came to visit us recently too and we had a week away up in Derbyshire with them in a beautiful rural location. They hadn’t been here for almost 4 years, so it was such a treat to spend time with them here in the UK.

Thank you for praying for our family as we serve Jesus here in Chippenham.  We have several church outreach events coming up soon and Peter leaves Friday for a weekend of teaching in Ireland.  Please pray that all of us Meads would lean hard on Jesus.  We all have different challenges and growth opportunities we are facing.  We need your prayers so much.

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.