Thank you so much for your prayers! My two weeks at the New Wine conference were more fruitful and blessed than I could have planned for. It was an exhausting, but worthwhile and enjoyable time. Once again I was given the keys to a rented van:
...filled it with exhibition stand equipment and 1456 copies of "Revolution In World Missions"...
...and drove it down to Shepton Mallet.
I was extremely blessed to be able to stay for the two weeks with Colin and Jean, some volunteers who were helping to man our stall. They live only 30mins drive away from the showground and kindly offered to let me stay with them, removing the need for me to camp alone for two weeks. I enjoyed spending time with them, serving with them, praying with them, and, of course, eating with them!
One of the things that can make or break the conference for us is the location we are given for our stand. The Lord blessed us with a place that had a wide open space in front and walkways either side, making us extremely accesible to the traffic of people.
Colin and Jean were very good at talking to the Christians there about the great number of unreached people in Asia, and about how the Lord is raising up national missionaries to the take the Gospel to them. I was blessed by their eagerness to serve... and somewhat surprised by their strength and endurance!
For the second week we were joined at the stand by Suzanne, who had come with her husband and three sons. They have spent time in India themselves and have a heart for reaching the lost in Asia with the Gospel.
Here is a better view of our stall:
We gave away 1334 books. We pray that each one would stir it's reader to realise that there are still over 2 billion people in Asia waiting to hear that Jesus died for them, and that we can play a part in them hearing by being senders of the sent.
The Office
We were recently blessed by a visit from the Moon family and some of their friends. The Moons are involved with the US office and were on a visit to the UK.
We were also blessed with a visit from the Deans from Norwich. I hadn't seen them since the beginning of the year and it was good to catch up and see how much the boys had grown!
Oliver came to stay at my house for a night, and of course I put him to work at the office straight away! We had plenty of name and address information to input into our database and his volunteered services were most welcome.
We have also recently been blessed by volunteer Catherine, who is very adept at name entry, and took to missionary re-assignments like a fish to water. She has recently gotten a new job but we look forward to seeing her whenever she has some free time.
We have been playing catch-up for the last couple of weeks, but with the Lord's strength we are gradually getting back up to pace.
India Trip
The Lord has been gracious to me, and the full amount of support I need for my Vision Tour to India has come in,
...and my visa has also arrived. Thank you for your support and prayers so far, and please continue to pray as I make final preparations for going to India.
Prayer Requests
Thank you for your prayers so far. Here are some other things to pray for:
1. Please pray for fruit from our time at the conferences. Pray that Christians would be praying for revival in Asia and sponsor missionaries.
2. Please pray for us to get caught up with our work at the office, and for volunteers to come and help us out.
3. Please pray for us as we make final preparations for the India trip.
4. Please pray for my family to come to saving faith in our Lord Jesus.
5. I found out today that Barclays thought we wanted to terminate our service contract with them, which means that currently no-one can donate anything on our website. I am trying to get this sorted out, please pray that it gets resolved soon!
Home
I went back to Norwich recently and got to spend some time with my family. My dad made roast duck and pancakes, food fit for a king!
And my mum made... well, I don't even know what it's called in English, but it's really good!
Paul from church came over for lunch, and tried learning to play chinese cards.
These are two of my aunts, Kim and Cette, whom I love very much. Please pray that they would come to know the love and mercy of Jesus!
Thanks go to Cette for sending me soup:
Durian
I was introduced once again to a traditional fruit eaten and relished by my family, whose aroma has caused it to be banned from planes, hospital and various other public areas in Asia. The "durian" is the strangest looking, weirdest tasting, and strongest smelling entity that I have ever encountered... and I thought I would introduce you to it!
This is a durian in it's unopened state:
The shell is hard and difficult to open, and requires extreme measures:
The edible flesh is contained in compartments within the shell:
I tried some again for the first time in a long time! The texture is like a thick, thick custard. I can only describe the flavour by suggesting that you imagine taking some butter, sugar, and raw onion, and blending them all together.
It also has the strangest looking pips, of varying sizes. My grandma and aunt, as you can see, love this smelly fruit!
Well, thank you again for reading. I appreciate your taking the time to be a part of my life... including the stranger parts!
God bless you!
JP
