The reason I have not been reporting anything online is simple.  People here in the UK use the Internet just like people in the US.  Therefore, it does not seem like a good idea to be reporting on our ministry and outreach efforts with various people who could easily find this blog themselves.  I’m sure you can imagine the awkwardness of that.

At this point, I don’t desire to use the blog to discuss my “deep thoughts” about ministry, missions, or the Christian life.  So, while I’m not going to take this offline just yet, I won’t be publishing much of anything online either.

I will be notified of comments on this blog, so if you want to be added to our e-mail update list, you can comment and request it.  Or just e-mail us directly.

Thanks for understanding!  Please don’t stop praying for us.  And since I don’t put our prayer letters online, I am able to be a little more detailed in what I say.

Anyway, we need God’s grace as much as ever.  We hear so often from people who pray for us – both in the UK and in the US – that I can’t help but be hopeful that God will show Himself strong in our behalf.

The Lord sent as many people as we could handle, but no more.  The ladies did a fine job serving food afterward, delivering it airline style, moving up and down the narrow aisles to serve the people right in their seats – the food was much better than “airline food,” however.  No one seemed to mind the crowded conditions, and the whole thing seemed to go rather well.

We managed to have most of the families with young children crowded into the front corner of the room, which I’m sure made for some great entertainment if anyone was losing interest in the actual service.  I think there were three mums, two dads, 3 babies, and 7 other children of various ages.  The kids eventually settled down, but it was quite lively at the beginning.  The preacher for the day began his sermon by commenting on the “fruitfulness” of some of the young ministers in North Wales.

So, we were glad for how the day went.  It was a tremendous encouragement to have so many there from other churches – I think at least 12 different churches were represented.  And we were extremely grateful for those who were able to help clean up afterwards.  The sermon was a great encouragement – emphasising from John 21 that the Lord uses failing people, particularly failing ministers, to care for His sheep.  There were many other blessings from the day that I won’t take time mention.  Now, we need to get to work!

Here in the UK, we officially had a 4 day weekend because of the wedding on Friday and the May Day bank holiday on Monday.  The last four days will always be remembered by us as the weekend we saw the royal wedding, held the induction service, experienced my first day as pastor in Rhuddlan, and then awakened to the news that Osama bin Laden was dead.  What strange juxtapositions we often encounter: a royal wedding watched by billions, full of pageantry and extravagance – followed for us by a simple service in a small chapel, attended by 100 people and hardly noticed by anyone else; a beautiful “common” girl marries a prince and the world celebrates – then two days later a bearded extremist is assassinated, and the world celebrates again.  World-wide fame for each, but for very different reasons.

In the big picture, it’s a good reminder that we live in a fallen world, where joyous events can quickly be overshadowed by darker happenings.  On an individual level, the wedding was fun, fascinating, and maybe even a little inspiring.  But for us, beginning our ministry in Rhuddlan will prove to have far more abiding – even eternal!- significance than any other event of the weekend.

• Summer 2005 – Graduation from seminary and finally moving off campus
• Summer 2006 – Maggie is born
• Summer 2007 – Move across town to a larger house
• Winter 2008 – Gwyneth is born
• Autumn 2008 – Move to Abergele, North Wales
• Autumn 2009 – Move across town
• Autumn 2010 – Amelia is born
• Summer 2011 – Move to Rhuddlan

Every year since 2005 we have either moved, had a baby, or both.  We’ll see what happens in 2012.  I’m not making any predictions!

And speaking of being busy, we think we have found a house to rent.  The papers are not officially signed, but we have them in hand.  We don’t have an official moving date yet, but it’s going to be soon – less than a month away.  We would have liked to put it off another week or two, but we have other events coming down the pike, so we need to just get it over with.

Right now we feel like we are in between ministries, so it will be nice to be officially “inducted” (much preferable to being “induced”) at Rhuddlan.  However, with the move coming up, we definitely feel like our strength and focus for ministry are being seriously diluted.  We need grace, patience, and wisdom for digging into our new ministry and getting set up in our new house.

But things are changing fast for us.  We are indeed switching to a different church in the town of Rhuddlan.  In fact, this Sunday will be our last Sunday as part of the church in Abergele.  We will be attending church in Rhuddlan for two Sundays, and then I will be taking over as pastor there on 1 May.  With God’s help we will find a house to rent in Rhuddlan as well – hopefully sooner rather than later.  It’s not a long commute from Abergele to Rhuddlan, but we definitely believe that we will be much more effective in that ministry if we could live in the town itself.

We are excited about serving in Rhuddlan, but we need wisdom for how best to make gospel progress in that town.  There are a good number of older folks in our new church, and they are burdened about reaching younger people and families in that town.  Reaching unchurched younger people through an older, established church can be a challenge, but we trust that God is not finished working in Rhuddlan.

One of the coolest parts about going to Rhuddlan is that it has an 800 year-old castle there.