New Friends, New Faces, New Stories, New Places

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The last few weeks have been like a daydream. They have passed so quickly, yet we have packed so much in. We left for Rotherham on Saturday 14th October and stayed with my cousin George Jack and family. What a joy to stay with them! They are such a blessing and they love the Lord an each other so much.

I was particularly inspired by their lovely daughter Emma. She is an incredible witness for the Lord at her school and she has entered herself into the "X-Factor" competition at her high school. Check this out ... every song she has sung has been a Christian song. She is now in the final next week. Watch this space for a great Scottish girl doing great things in Yorkshire!

We ministered in our friend Jim McGlade's church on Sunday morning and then went to George's church at Station Road in Rotherham in the evening. There was a great response in both services to the challenge of a surrendered life to God.

It was great to spend some time with George, his family and his young people during the week. Mum & dad came down to join us on the Wednesday and we spent a lovely few days in York & Leeds. What a beautiful wee place York is!


We went to Rotherham New Life on Sunday 22nd October. They had two services .. so it was an extremely early start to get there on time! But we had two brilliant services there. My friend John Andrews has done a magnificent job making RNL a "local church with a global vision."

We travelled down to Bristol in the afternoon and next morning we travelled down to the "Inspiration 4 Mission" Conference in Torquay. It was great to have mum & dad there with us, but there was a full kids programme at every meeting ... so in the end they really enjoyed all the ministry!

...and the ministry was amazing! Andrew & Rachel David - the Leaders of World Christian Ministries - are an amazing couple and great friends. The Conference was excellent - the food, the accommodation, the hotel, the worship ... but especially the preaching. The main speaker was Dr. John Andrews along with an amazing man of God from India called David Prakasaam. I was also one of the speakers ... although I preferred to be a listener! I recommend anyone to book up now for next years conference ... you will not be disappointed.

Lydia and Josiah loved being at the Conference as they met new friends! John's kids are lovely, and their eldest daughter Elaina took Lydia under her wing the whole week. She is Lydia's new big sister! Andrew's wee girl Hannah was also a new pal for Lydia. Little Josiah just was friends with everyone!


We drove from Torquay to Bolton on the Friday (8 and a half hours in terrible traffic!!!) and we met our lovely friends Andrew and Sue Stokes .. with their three beautiful daughters. My dad, me and Andrew even managed to get tickets for Bolton v Man Utd ... and that is a story in itself! We saw Rooney score an exquisite hatrick!

We went to the Bolton Bridge Church in Sunday and could not believe the work that has been done there. They have turned the church into an 800 seater building and it is the most amazing church building I have been in here in the UK. It was great to see Pastor Ian Watson again. He really encouraged us when we first came home in our difficult moments.

We had a bit of a technical problem which meant we could not show our Powerpoint presentation ... and that threw us a bit (especially Mary, who carried on amazingly), but it was good to see people respond top what we had to share from the Lord.

We arrived home at 1am totally exhausted. Last week, Mary's mum & dad came to stay with us. We had a great time and the kids we so happy to see them.. October was definetely a "Grandparents" month for our kids! On Thursday we had a visit from Dave & Madeline Russon. dave is the incoming Director of AoG World Ministries, so it was good to catch up with them.

Last weekend I went down South again ... but that is for another blog! On Monday I am going to Ghana for a 12 day ministry trip. Tell you about that later!

So much to share and so little time for my little fingers to type! Gotta go to bed now. More soon. Goodnight!