Saturday 22 May 2010

Shortly after my last blog entry I was invited to celebrate an informal Passover at Tim and Judy’s house. I was in charge of making the unleavened bread and roast potatoes.


Tim made a great roast lamb and read out the Passover account from Exodus.


April marked the start of conference season for us, signifying cars loaded with books and equipment and long drives to exhibition halls.




I was booked to man our stall at the third week of Spring Harvest in Minehead, a five and a half hour drive from York.


Talking to over a hundred Christian strangers about the plight of 80,000 people dying everyday in Asia without Christ and explaining the opportunity we have in the West to impact the Asian mission field was tiring, but well worth it.


Every free book we gave out is a potential missionary sponsorship, and every missionary means an entire village having the chance to hear the Gospel.


Of course I wasn’t there all by myself, I was with two of our volunteers, Andy and Rachel (below). They were missionaries in Peru for 24 years and had some great stories to tell. I had a really good time serving at the conference with them, they are a great example of a couple who love Jesus and have completely dedicated their lives to Him.


At the end of the conference I had to make a detour to Elliot’s house in London to meet Lacey, a guest arriving from America to visit our office.


Because of the recent ash cloud all flights were in disarray, and Heathrow Airport was uncharacteristically empty.


Lacey is a photographer from a church in America that supports Gospel for Asia who wanted to visit the UK office and see the work here. Because of the ash cloud she was carted around 6 European countries in 17 hours and she was extremely tired.


Elliot invited us back to his house for a grand barbecue, taking advantage of the oddly good April weather.


His daughters Charlotte and Sarah were kind enough to perform a puppet show for us before our departure for York.


It was about three and a half hours to York, Lacey slept most of the way, which I take as a great compliment on my driving!


Conference time usually also signifies lots of names and addresses to add to our database.


We have been very fortunate to have Dionne, another one of our conference volunteers, agree to spend a month volunteering in our office, to assist in our name additions, as well as with other jobs.


We also had the pleasure of being visited by Danny Punnose, Brother KP’s son, and Gospel for Asia’s Vice President. It was really encouraging to meet him and hear him teach, and hear his experiences and testimonies of God’s faithfulness through the years.


Elijah has been getting proficient in the ancient art of skateboarding, and occasionally I get to witness his skilful manoeuvres.


I have also had the pleasure of spending time with the McGhies, our close friends and supporters. Here is a shot of Damian and Jessica having a jam for the Lamb:


To further quell any worries that I am not eating well enough, here is a picture of our food stores at home:


James has almost completed the shed:


…and he recently found the beginnings of a wasps nest in the ceiling!


Both I and James commended the remarkable engineering of the structure, however the wasp nest would not have been a welcome addition to James’ project – it had to go.


James has also planted apple trees and some vegetable plants, and I can’t wait until harvest time!


On a rather random tangent, we were discussing Shane’s t-shirt with him. He maintains it is the latest fashion, but James and I would suggest that it was the result of a sewing machine accident. What do you think?