Future Comfirmed

On Monday we were approved by out company's trustees. We will return to London mid- May.

Angie still hasn't had the baby but the doctor has scheduled an induction for Tuesday, 26 January if he has not come yet. Keep an eye out for future news and pics.

Our future...

Monday (18 January) at 7:15pm (EST) the Board of Trustees for our organisation will vote on our future position. Well, actually, they vote on us. Our representative, Larry, will have 10 minutes to present us to the Board and they will do their best to hear from the Holy Spirit and make a decision about our future position. Please pray that God will give these wise men direction and discernment. Pray that Larry will accurately represent us and effectively communicate what God is doing in London through and around us.

Christmas with Family

If you didn't already know, we are in the U.S. We arrived safely in October after some frantic packing and preparation to leave the UK. Why do I always try to fit so much in such a short period of time? We have had a great few months in the States so far, seeing family and friends, sharing with several churches about what God is doing in London, figuring out all of the things we need to know about having a baby, and just breathing.

Please continue to pray for Caleb as he grows and prepares for this world we find ourself in. He has been moving all over the place the last few weeks!

Pray for...

...Continued adjustment back to life in the US

...Opportunities to share the hope that we have in Jesus with people here

...The Circle

...Connection with a faith community here that we can spur on towards Christ and who will encourage us

As always, you are loved and appreciated. Happy Christmas!

The rains are coming but the sun still shines.

It's a rainy day today. We've enjoyed so much sun over the past few months. Thanks God!

We are trying to take it a bit easy this week. A partner team from Canton, Georgia arrives on Sunday and will walk with us for a week. It will be a busy time for sure. Then we only have 3 weeks until our departure for the US! EEK!

I (Chris) have several things to do this week to prepare for this partner team as well as our pending move. We appreciate your prayers as we tie up some loose ends before our time in the States.

Pray for continued, healthy partnerships with Acton Baptist Church (Pastor Mick), Acton Community Forum (Lavonne, Steve, and Rachel), The Hoodies Project (Colin, Neil, Carlie, and the rest), The Trust (Lucy), Regenerate UK (Andy and Louis), South Hanwell Baptist Church (Stuart), and Hillsong Connect group-Acton. These are important relationships in what God is doing in London.

Hillary, our intern who was denied entry into the UK a month ago has now arrived! We met her at the train station yesterday and are SO happy to have her with us. She is acclamating to the city and getting to know the other interns this week. God is doing great things through this lot. I'll blog about it soon. Promise;)

Angie and the baby are doing well. Still no sickness. Still no aversions. My blood test results came back and I am not a cystic fibrosis carrier. Praise God!

Phoning home

Ever since I (Chris) moved from my parents' house my mom has reminded me that they like to hear what is happening in my life. As the internet continues to shrink the world it becomes more and more simple to communicate across vast distances. I can't imagine what it would have been like when the ships first left this island for the new world. But I think I might have been better suited for the communication of that time. At least then three months without communication would have been like the blink of an eye. Now, as I look at the date of my last post, it seems like an eternity. And I suppose it is.

What has happened...

South Acton Street Party
Everything has comtinued to move forward. The issue with the date has been sorted. We are preparing for FBC Canton to arrive on 20 Sept. I have heard from several local believers that they are excited by this opportunity. As I write this post I am on my way to meet with Lavonne at the Community Forum.

iGo
We had an amazing month with 150 American teenagers partnering with us in July. There were innumerable faith conversations and 12 people expressed the first signs of choosing to follow Jesus. We are now in the process of follow up and discipleship with these people.

Babies...
Chris' youngest brother and sister-in-law had their first child this week. We are very excited for them. We can't wait to see them in November. Angie is doing really well. She hasn't been sick at all. No crazy cravings or aversions. Just tired and hungry:) The baby is healthy and growing. 19 weeks on. We did find out that Angie is a cystic fibrosis carrier so they are testing Chris' blood. No word yet but the doctoer wasn't too worried after the last ultrasound. We do know that it is a boy and we plan to...yes, I'm putting it in writing...we plan to call him Caleb Austin.

New Church...
A few weeks ago I (Chris) got a phone call from Lucy, our partner at World's End in Chelsea. Several of the teenagers that she knows and mentors have asked about starting a new church. They don't click with the forms of church that they know and, to be honest, are completely put off from church by them. Lucy was stunned and overwhelmed by the conversations. So we began a dialogue between ourselves as well as with these teenagers. I have met up with the group once now and today they drive back from a week away together discussing and praying over all of this. It amazes me that when I follow the Holy Spirit in every day life He begins to work around me in ways I could never imagined. I haven't made any of this happen. I simply find myself in the midst of God's plan.

Future...
Most of you will know that we have decided to apply for career status with our organisation. With the economic crisis our org has had to make drastic cutbacks. We have been unsure about how this would affect us but recently we were given unofficial word that things look good. We are confident that God has us in London for the next few years at least but we continue to pray that we will be aware of His direction in whatever form it comes. Currently we plan to

15 October...Return to the US (DFW)
19-24 October...Richmond, VA for interviews
December...Trustee approval
26 January...Angie's due date
2-4 March...Appointment (Tennessee?)
15 April...Return to London

We have spoken with a few of you about speaking at your church so we may see you there.

We are also looking for a car to use for those six months. If you know of any options please let us know. Love you all.

Urgent!

I just spoke with our contact at Acton Community Forum and she mentioned in passing a possible need to change the dates for the Street Party in South Acton on which we were hoping to work together. I am concerned because we can't change our date. It is the only time that our partner church can come to host the event. We are excited about the possibility of working with the Community Forum and don't want to miss this opportunity if at all possible. Please pray that God will sort this before we meet this Friday!

And don't miss the latest update just below.

Announcement

For those who have not yet heard, Angie is pregnant! She has had her first doctor's visit and we saw the heart beating strong. He even performed a bit for us. We expect the baby in mid-January while we are in the US. It's truly amazing how God sorts it all in the end. We couldn't have planned out a better timeline if we tried. We will depart London in mid-October for 6 months in the US, which will give us time to settle in and connect with a local doctor before the baby arrives. And then we hope to return to London at the end of April.

We still don't know what God really has in our future. We are as sure as we can be that He wants us in London, but we are still waiting for our approval to return with the company.

In the meantime, we have hit the busiest time of year for us in London. We have 18 interns here now, preparing for ~60 teenagers to arrive next week and another ~60 in three weeks. We are well excited about the potential for God's glory over the next month.

Chris will be leading the morning trainings during this time and walking with a smaller group in South Acton to connect with teenagers in the community.

We also connected with South Acton Community Forum a month ago to discuss the street party that one of our US partners will host in September. A few weeks after I received a phone call from them saying that they have decided to cancel tentative plans that they had for an event in August in order to partner with us in September. Praise God for invitations into the community!