Visiting England last week.

I went to London last week for a few days so as to spend time with my father. It was the first anniversary of my mother's death and he has been devastated. He is coping! It was a good visit as we just hung out and had lunch out together a couple of times. We met the lawyer and things are now getting sorted out for his further care. What a blessing that he is in a place where people know him and care, and look out for him.

While in England I spent a wonderful day with Simon and Angela Kendall. We go back to school days - though I was too young and junior to be noticed. We met later as we tried to become chartered accountants together and discovered our shared faith in Jesus. Simon and Angela went on to live in Kenya for quite a while where Simon worked extensively with the Church. He then after returning went to great lengths to rediscover me and what I was doing. Lo and behold they live in the next village from my parents. It has been a joy to rediscover our friendship as well as to be blessed by having our wives getting on famously.

Simon has a great gift for networking and he is working hard to help me get in touch again with the folk of thirty or forty plus years ago. I was able to get in touch - with Simon's help - with those clergy who influenced and guided me those many years ago. My old vicar, Tony Waite is now ninety seven and as with it as ever. My other rector, Dick Lucas was preaching at St. Helen's Bishopsgate (picture on the right) last Tuesday and so we resumed conversation. The blessing of renewing friendships effectively lost when I emigrated to the States is huge. It is my hope and belief that there will be a prayer support community in England as well as in the US.

Simon had some interesting advice. He suggested that I drop the form of address "Father" since this might offend. It just shows how long I have been here where that is a normal form of address as it describes relationships rather than an office. After all Paul suggests that those to whom he ministered think of him as their father. On the other hand Jesus does say "call no man father." Anyway I have now changed the newsletter a bit lest I offend. It is too late to change email addresses which have been in use for so many years.

One of the side effects of going into missionary ministry is that the relationships become all the more vital and wonderful. Truly this is about people partnering in mission - we will simply be those on the front line.

Miracle Testimony

I was really struck by this testimony sent to me by one of my mission partners. This is a "goose-bump raising" witness to the power of God. Praise God - Ian

Testimony from Abby:

"My name is Abby. I am 14 years old. I live in western North Carolina. During the summer (June) of 2008, I went on a ministry trip to Guatemala. During part of the trip, we divided up into small ministry teams (5 to 7 people) and visited different villages in the San Pedro La Laguna area. We traveled from village to village telling the Indian people about Jesus. On one particular day, we were visiting in the home of a young woman. She lived in a small village of about 14 or 15 houses. We were trying to lead the young lady to Christ, but it was not going very well. After awhile, we decided to move on. Before leaving, we asked the woman if we could pray with her about anything in her life. She told us that just the day before, she had given birth to a stillborn baby and that we could pray with her about that.

"In Guatemalan culture, there is great shame and condemnation on mothers who give birth to deformed or stillborn children. We prayed a simple prayer that everything would go well with the funeral and burial of the baby and that the mother would be spared the shame and condemnation associated with having given birth to a stillborn child. As we were praying this simple prayer, my friend and fellow ministry team member, Julia (age 17), told me that we needed to pray over the baby's body. I thought she was crazy to suggest this and that it was not a good idea. Julia was persistent. She said again that we really needed to pray over the baby's body. She told me to ask the mother if she still had the baby's body. When I asked, the mother told us the baby's body was wrapped up in a burial cloth in the back room. I asked her if we could pray over the body. The mother hesitantly said, yes. We went into the backroom and saw the baby's body wrapped up in a bundle! on the bed. Julia poked her head out of the back room and asked if she could unwrap the baby's head. The mother said, yes, if we wrapped it back correctly when we were done. Julia picked up the body and unwrapped the head. The baby's head was tiny and pale. The baby was stillborn and had been dead outside the womb for 27 hours. Her skin had turned shades of purple. Our entire ministry team, five of us, began crying and praying over this baby.

“We prayed for thirty to forty minutes. At the end of that time, Julia screamed out to God, telling Him that she believed with all of her heart that this baby could be raised from the dead. After Julia screamed out, everyone was silent. We were quietly interceding and praying. Within a few minutes, the baby started moving. Then the baby coughed and began crying. The mother came rushing into the room. She was screaming, what is going on? No one could answer her. We were just staring at the baby, who had come back to life. The mother asked us again, what is going on? She began crying as she saw that her baby was alive. She ran out of the house and banged on every door in the village, telling all of the people that God is real because her baby was alive. Within about thirty minutes, the baby's! skin tone and movements had become completely normal.

"The other villagers came to the house to see this amazing miracle. They asked us which of the Indian gods we had prayed to for such a miracle to happen. We told them we had prayed to the biggest God ever and we began to explain to them about Jesus. Soon, we realized we would not have time to minister salvation to each person individually. So, we gathered all the villagers together, turned on our little sound system and explained the way of salvation. Everyone in the village, 80 to 90 people, prayed to receive Jesus. Each of them was baptized in the Holy Spirit and began speaking in tongues. Many would fall to the ground as the power of the Holy Spirit came on them.

"Five days later, we returned to the village to check in on the mother and the baby. The village had prepared a big dinner in honor of our team. We enjoyed a wonderful time of fellowship together. The baby, whom they named Julia, was perfectly healthy and had gained weight. Even after five days, the mother was still shaking from the impact of God on her life through the resurrection of her child. Two days after our follow-up visit, the mother brought baby Julia to church. The mother was still shaking from the power of God on her life following this astounding miracle."

Getting there by the grace of God.

This is a good week. Polly came back to Wisconsin for week so we could be together. What a joy to have her back here for a while. She will return to Vermont the day I fly to England to help my father and visit my brother. This week also we received our first pledge of financial support. I can't tell you how wonderful it is to have God begin to put together this patchwork of wonderful people who are going to be part of this ministry. Our support team has been joined by Anne Peterson. Her daughter Katie is tutoring me in Spanish which is wonderful. I have now started to dip into a Spanish NIV Bible and have ordered a couple of "Oracion Comun" books. This is getting serious.

A dear friend advised me to put Polly on the front of the blog. He says, "I don't know when I have seen pictures of Ian where he looked happier (Pictures of Polly would raise more funds. She is much prettier than you, Ian.)" So right - it is done.