We have had a very busy but wonderfully blessed summer, full of events and milestones for our family. Here are some bullet points of what’s been happening. At long last, at the bottom of this post, we will share some photos of Aliyah and Michael’s wedding which was such a joyous time!
- The five of us went to the Josiah Venture missionary care conference at the end of April and we loved it! Peter spoke from John’s gospel and we all enjoyed connecting with many wonderful missionaries (and kids) serving in Eastern Europe.
If you would like to hear Peter’s messages from the conference, click here. And here is an interview Peter did for the Josiah Ventures Stories podcast on ministry life and biblical preaching.
- Aliyah graduated from Moody with her degree in biblical studies on 17 May and then she and Mariah and Michael flew to the UK and the pre-wedding preparations started in earnest.
- We had MANY visitors with us during the pre and post wedding weeks. We had quite a few days of 40+ people eating with us in our home which was an organisational challenge (!) but such a privilege. Mariah and Hannah were my right hand women. It was a very sweet few weeks – we only wished we would’ve had more time with each of the precious friends and family that filled our home. In June and July we enjoyed more days with friends who visited from the USA.
- The day after the wedding, Kaylah got baptised! What a joy for her to share this day with all the friends and family who were still in town. We had an amazing evening at our home afterwards – a special cake made for her by a friend, Kaylah and her friends learning and performing a dance in our driveway and an impromptu worship time which filled our neighbourhood with a joyful noise!
- The weekend after Aliyah and Michael’s wedding, our niece Rebecca married Kenny in Norwich. The girls were bridesmaids and Peter did the sermon. It was a lovely day!
- Trinity Chippenham held our biggest youth weekend away yet (end of June – Peter spoke) and largest ever whole church weekend away (middle of July during a heat wave!). Both were really encouraging times! Peter managed to finish the speaking at the youth weekend before succumbing to the tummy bug that ripped through our family that following week – no fun, but it thankfully somehow stayed contained within our family despite the many people who we were around! The same weekend as our whole church went away, Noah graduated from his course at Union School of Theology. We’re so proud of him!
- Aliyah and Michael stayed here for a few days after their honeymoon in Montenegro before they moved to their home together in Dallas. I celebrated my birthday with the best gift – having our whole family here together. We had a special night of worship along with some dear friends from TC. (The photo at the top of this page was taken that night!)
- Joel graduated from high school on the 5th of July! We had a small celebration as a family that included a photo slideshow, messages of encouragement and advice from some men in his life and a biscoff cake made by Hannah. We are so proud of him. He leaves one week from today for Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. We will miss him very much! Mariah took the senior photos below while the two of them were in Albania visiting missionary friends.
- It was a joy having Mariah here with us this summer. She was so helpful and brought so much joy and enthusiasm to our family! She went back to Moody mid-July in order to work a lot of hours at her job in security at the school which she loves. We were sad to see her go but we are so thankful at how she seems to be thriving in the Lord, in her studies and job too.
- In the midst of all the events this summer, we’ve been continuing to serve the Lord at Trinity Chippenham and beyond. Peter went to the European Leadership Forum in May, he’s been preaching through Galatians on Sundays at TC, we’ve continued to help lead our life group and continued with various types of personal/pastoral ministry.
- At the end of July, the younger girls and I finally finished our school year (we had to take a lot of breaks this year due to travelling and the wedding). I continue to be thankful for the privilege of educating and discipling our children.
- We leave for France a week from tomorrow where we’ll attend the Christian Workers Conference (a break for those full-time ministry), in Annecy. Then we’ll have another week on our own in another part of France. We are definitely feeling in need of a rest so please pray it’s a refreshing and restorative time for us.
The big highlight of the summer was Aliyah and Michael’s wedding! Here is the video in case anyone would still like to watch it. The wedding was an absolute joy – so Christ-honouring and meaningful and also fun. The weeks surrounding it were also wonderful. We were overwhelmed and humbled to see how so many friends supported us in a myriad of ways – accommodating the many visitors from overseas, helping to provide food pre and post wedding, helping with flowers, food, decorating, etc for the wedding . . . the list could go on! I think those weeks were the biggest organisational situation I have ever been part of and it was amazing to receive so much help and support.
If you’ve read this far, let us bless you with a few more photos of our sweet grandson Owen, who will turn one next week. We adore him and enjoy every minute we get to spend with him and Hannah and Noah.
Thank you so much for reading this and praying for our family! We are truly grateful for your prayers and support as we serve the Lord in the UK and beyond. As always, please let us know how we can pray for you too.
