Friday 7 May 2010

Bethal Church. Wow!


What an amazing time we had together at the Leaders Advance at Bethel Church, Redding. The church is full of genuine joy and an incredible grace. There is a strong sense of fun and some serious encounters with the Holy Spirit. The teaching has been excellent and both leadership and ministry were modelled in ways that were very uplifting and encouraging, So many of the values we are seeking to establish at home in Reading are evident but with an experience of the Holy Spirit which is literally refreshing.
We are trusting for grace and sensitivity to digest what we heave heard and been impacted by and to outwork whatever we can with our dear friends at home. May God help us to live in the flow of all He has for us.
We have now moved on to beautiful Carmel by the Sea and looking forward to some holiday rest.
We are so grateful to God for provoking us to take this trip and for friends at home who are looking after things. God is still moving, despite such uncertainty around the world and not least at home after such a confusing election. May God bless us in the UK as we find our hope in Him and not our political leaders - we pray that they might have wisdom and insight.
PS The picture is of some of the Reading Leaders together with Bill Johnson, who so kindly gave us some of his valuable time, even after leading a full on conference!
Steve and Anita

Wednesday 28 April 2010

California Dreams

After arriving in San Francisco on Monday with friends from another Reading Church, we checked in to a nice hotel on Union Square and spent a few hours trying to stay awake by travelling on the famous trams to Pier 39. Grabbed a bite to eat and headed back on what was a chilly evening.

The next couple of days proved to get colder - much colder, and very snowy! We drove east for about 200 miles to South Lake Tahoe, somewhere we visited in 2003 and loved. Our room is literally right on the lakeside and this picture is the view from our patio balcony doors.

We are in California to attend a leaders conference with 14 leaders from Reading - in Redding. Our children are at home looking after the dogs and we will be visiting Bethel Church in a day or two - depending on when the roads are cleared from the heavy snows.

We'll try to do a short update on how things are going.

Steve & Anita





Thursday 4 February 2010

The year has started


It's February and although a month has gone already in 2010, it feels like the year has only just started. The snow brought everything to a halt - we spent eight hours in our car travelling back from Tesco in Reading just before Christmas!

Plans for our daughter Helen's wedding are gaining momentum as July will soon be here. All of our daughters will be married and caring for their own families. This week it was Katie's 30th birthday and this has made us reflect on how quickly life passes by. We put together a DVD of pictures of Katie's life so far and it was moving to watch our family pass through the many phases of life. Our eldest grandchild, Jamie was seven two weeks ago!
Anita's close friend Karena is living the last days of her life and we are amazed and moved by the incredible story her husband Craig is sharing via his blog most days. Their courage, faith and honesty are incredible - testament to our God who is literally pouring His strength into them. They live with the very real confidence that they have a hope that goes way past this life and into the next. Please pray for Craig, Karena and their lovely family.
Our lives in Britain are generally very individualistic. It's a great pity that it can take a crisis for us to really share our lives together.
A short update to keep in touch with whoever has the time to read our blog - sorry the messages are so infrequent these days!