Hi Everyone,
Well, the summer is over (was it ever here!) and the schools have started again. Despite the weather we have thoroughly enjoyed August and there have been a number of highlights. More about them later!
After Kevin hosted a visiting team at the end of July he appreciated a quiet office during August whilst many were on holiday! He used the time to catch up on administration in between manning the bookshop whilst the manager was away. He is glad that there is a bit more buzz around the office again now as people return refreshed and ready for a new season!
One of the highlights of August was our quick trip to the UK for the wedding of Steph (who worked with us in Plymouth). Her wedding to Andy was lovely and of course the bride looked gorgeous… nearly outshone by a beautiful bridesmaid (Ellie) and handsome page-boy (Sam). They both performed their roles perfectly and we were extremely proud of them… oh and Kev did a good job of leading the service too! CONGRATULATIONS TO STEPH AND ANDY!
We returned to Brussels just before the children’s other God parents, Rick and Kate, arrived with their daughter, Chloe. They came for the week of the annual holiday club run jointly by St Paul’s/The link and The International Baptist Church. We took Chloe along each day whilst Kate and Rick had some well deserved time to themselves. The theme this year was “Avalanche Ranch” and involved a mixture of bible stories, songs, games, puppets and circle up times. There were 200 children including the crèche and graduate’s programme (teenagers own track). I loved the week and led the singing and dancing whilst Kev did a fantastic job on puppets and memory verses. All the children enjoyed themselves and went away understanding more of God’s character. As well as Chloe we took along one of Ellie’s friends from school and already her mum is asking when it will be next year!
So as we start back we would really value your prayers. This weekend (7th-9th) we shall be having a retreat time as staff to pray, worship and talk. Normally we go to a big house in the Ardennes once a year but unfortunately this was not available so we will doing it more “at home”. We will use a local church on Saturday to meet in and intend to also socialise over some nice meals too! We shall be particularly seeking God about the training side of our ministry. This is the second year we have had to cancel our discipleship training programme due to lack of staff and applicants and we would like to know the way forward. Please pray that we hear God’s voice together as well as getting closer as an overall team.
The weekend will be followed by Kev making a trip to Germany to get our new car! We wanted to take the time to thank everyone who has been so generous to us over the last 9 months in lending us their cars for various trips (9 cars in total and even more were offered!!!!!!) And a special thanks too for our friends in Germany who are giving us a car. What great friends we have!
God provides for us in many ways and it is always great to see see him in action: case in point, our washing machine which was clearly on its way out, died last week. Later that week we were rung up asking “Did we by any chance need a washing machine?” Of course we said yes! This was a relief and allowed Kev to buy his new glasses which he really needed. And God keeps providing – Sam now has his huge tall bed with space underneath for his “office”.
Look forward to hearing from you all too!
Love Nicki, Kevin, Sam and Ellie
September Dates:
- 7th-9th: YWAM Brussels base retreat
- 10th-11th: Kevin going to Bavaria to pick up our new car!
- 13th: Mothers and babies meetings start again
- 6th: Kevin is speaking at the Link
- 19th :Kevin is speaking at an ADHD group on “Communication at Work”
- 29th: Kevin is speaking at a Flemish Missions conference in Zaventem – speaking on Evangelism (in English)
- 30th: Kevin is speaking on Evangelism (seminar 1 of 3 in French) to a youth group.
