Arriving at Heathrow on Friday
We are so grateful to God for his help in the past few days. Peter had a wonderful week in Poland at the European Leadership Forum (see below for more) and he arrived home last Thursday afternoon. It was a busy 16 hours – packing and doing last minute prep for our trip – before we flew out of London on Friday for Chicago! After spending the night with my aunt Carol, we made the 5 hr. drive down to Noah’s town in Missouri (near St. Louis).
We drove past the famous St. Louis arch
It was super sweet to be reunited with Hannah and Noah and meet Noah’s parents and brothers and sister in law and have dinner with them. Yesterday we went to Noah’s church and met his grandparents and friends. Peter will preach there on 11 June.
Happy reunion with Hannah!
And Noah!
Noah helping Kaylah shoot an airsoft gun.
Peter and Kaylah and Jessah and I are staying in an apartment in this building which is the youth centre at Noah’s church. Hannah and Noah will have their wedding photos taken near this beautiful lake.
Jet lag has given Peter and I some early morning walks on the church grounds in the cool of the day. It’s been good to reflect and pray together as the wedding of our firstborn draws very near!
It’s also been sweet to have the Meadlings back together. Peter and I just picked Aliyah up from the train station in St. Louis and we’ve just had some celebratory (and some of our last!) meal together as 8 Meads. There was lots of laughter!
Last days together as 8 Meads. Celebrating the memories and years God has given us. And we can’t wait to watch Hannah become Mrs. Mozingo on Saturday and welcome Noah into the family.
Last night Noah was at his bachelor party and Hannah was explaining all the plans for the coming week and the wedding day (3 June) – so exciting to see it all coming together! Peter and I can’t believe we have a daughter about to get married. The tears are coming easily for me, but they are happy ones. Sometimes in these seasons of celebration, there’s so much joy in my heart that it’s overwhelming and hard to process it all! But we are grateful.
Thank you so much to those of you that have been praying for my health . . . I have had several days where I’ve felt a migraine threatening or had a mild version of one, but it’s all been very manageable. I can’t quite believe how well I’ve been doing over the last weeks and the last few days especially. Please keep praying with us for more migraine free days this week, especially for the wedding day itself and other important times like the rehearsal dinner. Also pray for us to continue to adjust to the time zone and for Mariah to recover as she’s been down with a bad cold the past day or so. It would be great if no one else gets it this week (especially Hannah and Noah!). We are so thankful to God for his help so far on this trip!
Now for a little report from Peter from his trip to Poland:
It was great to be back in Poland for an in-person ELF for the first time in four years. The Bible Teachers and Preachers networks both went really well. I was blessed by numerous conversations, and was thankful that each of my sessions seemed to go very well. I also enjoyed being part of a group from TC (there were five of us there from Chippenham!) The morning Bible sessions were taken by Conrad Mbewe, who spoke from Malachi. After a blessed and busy few days I got back home and packed up the bags ready for our flight to the USA the next day.
Here is our team for the Bible Teachers and Preachers Networks – Andy Hamilton from Rome, Italy, as well as Mike and Peter from Chippenham!
These two Italian students were excited to meet Peter, who has been their teacher on video in their Union learning community in Rome. It was fun to meet in person!
Thank you for reading this and praying with us. Our next update will be after the wedding with pictures to share!
