Sam, who has recently become a Christian, was baptised today. We had a service in Hartshill, and then went on to Park for the actual baptism. Jonathan Gravil led the baptismal service, and my father supervised. A picture can be seen below:
It has been a while since we have had a baptism in our church, and this one was certianly special. Several of her family and friends came. For the morning service, my dad continued the series he had been preaching on John, and by God’s providence it turned out to be John 3 this particular morning. We finished with a church meal.
At the same time, we also thanked Trevor Knight for his ministry in our church. He has now moved on to Emmanuel Evangelical Church in order to have more contact with his family. He was presented with a copy of ‘Sermons on the Incarnation’ by CJ Alexander.
I have left this a little long, since I knew yesterday that my father had arrived back in London without difficulty. I want to thank all of you who prayed for my dad while he was away for your love and the time you gave. Also, if you gave a gift for the work in Myanmar, I want you to know that it was recieved well and was an encouragement to the people of Burma.
Sometimes we pray for things, and forget to thank God for the answers we receive. I want to tell you about some of the answers we received for our prayer requests concerning Burma. If you remember, we asked for prayer for 7 things:
Gifts for Burmese Christians arrive without trouble from authorities.
Thank God, my father arrived into Burma without trouble or a long delay, and had no trouble at all with the authorities.
My father is given understanding concerning immediate needs, and acts according to God’s will in the distribution of funds.
My father returned from Burma satisfied that the gifts he had passed on to the believers had been distributed wisely, and had no regrets concerning this.
The believers in Burma are encouraged by my father and his gifts.
Here I will include a quote from a Burmese Pastor who shows an answer to just this prayer:
It’s my joy and priviledge to share the feedback of Pastor Phil Roberts coming to us in times of a crucial need. First of all, I must say a special thanks to Pastor Phil Roberts for coming to us and helping us to meet our immediate needs. His coming to us in this darkest hour in the history of Burma is a great comfort and encouragement for all of us in Yangon… …He came to us as a practical solution for many of our problems in Yangon. Therefore, to God be all the glory.
My father is saved from illness and fatigue and other trouble during his time, and that where possible, those around him are too.
My father returned safe and well.
That the relief money given does not cause any problems spiritually for the believers, since in their money it is a vast fortune.
Only God knows this, but the rejoicing that we have been priviliged to see in the believers who have received the money, and the heartfelt thanks to God convinces us that this prayer has been answered.
That the response of the believers in Burma is a light to those around them.
My father has made it very clear that this prayer has been answered.
That the whole time spent in Burma is to the glory of God, and that God’s hand is upon everything accomplished during this time.
I believe we have good reason to thank God for the time my father was able to thank God, and we echo with the Burmese Pastor, to God be all the glory.
We have received several answers to prayer concerning Burma. The main news is that my father has arrived into Burma safely with all the relief money. Another good piece of news is that he will be having air conditioning in the Hotel he is staying at. It is the hottest time of the year in Burma at the moment, and he has had trouble sleeping the last two times.
The believers in Burma have decided it is best if they distribute the money, rather than him, because they feel it is safer that their relief efforts to be associated with westerners. Please pray for trustworthy, Spirit-filled Christians in Burma to be found to look after the distribution of money. This is not to say we know of any that aren’t, but just that those especially well equipped for the work would be found.
Google will be donating up to $1m to the relief fund. The page linked also contains a map showing the path of the cyclone, so that you can understand more where the affected areas are. If you are considering donating money yourself, please consider donating through my father, as money donated to him will go directly to Christians in Myanmar. That is if you want your money to go to a definitely Christian source.
My father’s ordered a visa for Myanmar, please pray that he gets it without hassle.
To repeat, you can e-mail my dad for more personal details about the Myanmar disaster, or to donate money at:
If you have not yet heard, Burma has been hit by Cyclone Nargis. The news today was that the death toll has reached more than 22,000. This hits particularly close to home because my father has visited Burma twice in the past year or so, the second time taking Ally with him, and we have had personal letters from several of the people who will be most affected by this disaster.
One man runs an orphanage. He has given up everything, a degree, a good standard of living, to live in a small house in which he looks after as many orphans as he can possibly fit in. His house has been completely destroyed. My father says that many of the believers he has met are in similarly built houses, which do not stand a chance against the wind.
Please pray for God’s provision and help for the people of Burma, many of whom do not have water or electricity at this time.
If you are interested in having e-mail updates on the situation in Burma, please e-mail my father at:
This weekend I had a really excellent weekend away in Conwy. Our CU shared the weekend away with Emma’s church. This meant that we could have a hokiday as a CU< which otherwise wouldn't have been possible.
The highlight of the weekend for me was definitely climbing Crib Goch with Tim, Mandy, Ben, Ben, Steve, Cesar, Katherine, and a couple of other people whose names escape me. Crib Goch, if you are not aware, is a mountain in the region around Snowdonia. The original intention had been to climb Crib Goch, then climb up to Snowdonia. Unfortunately, this wasn’t possible due to the weather starting to look quite bad, and me having boots that had little or no grip.
However, during the time, we did still manage to see some beautiful sights. The panorama below shows the view from half way up Crib Goch:
Another of my favourite pictures was the one you can see below:
A lot more pictures are available to see on Alastair’s flickr page. Here they can be viewed full, or however you want.
A lot of people have been having birthdays recently. One of those people was Ben Youd (Emma’s boyfriend, and a good friend from CU), who received a Nikon D80. I recommend you head over to see |yearn|only|until|dawn|, his photoblog on aminus3. I’ve been quite impressed so far, because most people who say ‘daily updates’ actually mean ‘I’ll update once or twice, then quit forever’. A good example of such a person is Monika Roberts, but it looks as though Ben actually means it so far. Good job! I was going to comment on how bad the name of his blog was. Then I remember what mine was called, and decided silence on that subject would be better.
To be honest, the weekend for me made me realise just how fantastic the people in my CU are. There’s only a few of us, but I’ll have to say I’m lucky to have such good friends. It was also very special to meet the people from the Word of Life church again, having not seen them since I broke up with Emma.
I used to check Peter Shackelford’s blog every week to see if he’d updated. But alas, the man got married and dropped of the edge of the world. Well, that was for a while, and he’s been back for a while now. Apparently he runs a sort of international charitable film thing. I had a quick look today, and although I didn’t look long enough to find out what it’s all about, I did get to see some really brilliant short interviews and short videos taken in Africa. Peter and Amanda’s blogs look to be really brilliant, and I’m looking forward to reading more of them.
In addition to adding these links to my sidebar, I’ve cleaned up some of the old ones, and added some new ones. \/ Look down there \/.
I know I don’t post often, but it’s not like you’re hanging on my every word, so that’s alright. However, it is much to my distress that A certain someone no longer updates their blog. Now, Ally, I know you’re busy. But the truth is, you already have a first, so it’s not like it’d be impossible just to give us a little post.
My brother Mark, as you probably know, is George Verwer’s Go-fer this year. Take a look at George’s website for some of the latest updates on what George and Mark have been getting up to.
Of particular note is this video below. George was saved through Billy Graham 53 years ago, and for the first time he has been able to meet him. It’s a real blessing for Mark that he was able to be there too.
If you get the opportunity, please pray for Mark. Here I’m assuming there are some people who read this who don’t know all about my family already, but I will carry on. He will be preaching for the first time in his life this weekend. He will be standing in for George in a meeting, and I’m sure at the best of times that will be a challenge. You probably know that Mark’s not a confident speaker, but he’s definitely someone who could be an encouragement to the people he speaks to. He has to speak in a big missionary conference on the topic of ‘What is God doing in short term missions’, and another topic at a church, which I forget.
Monika just left to go back to Tenerife today, after visiting her Sister in Belgium. We were able to see her for a few days at the start of the Easter holidays, which was a great encouragement.
Another encouragement we received over the holiday was a visit from the O’Flahertys. The O’Flahertys are a wonderful Christian family, and the times we spend with them are always times we can thank God for.
Now, I believe there’s something of a group photo somewhere…
I lent my camera to the boys, and unfortunately that’s the most people I’ve got in one shot. However, it’s got to be said that that photo has character… (I’m terrible at spontaneous portraits, I’m glad someone just messes with my camera every now and then).
I’m currently celebrating Mark’s acquisition of a 2-1, and my dad’s birthday.
It’s great having Mark back, he really is a legend, and it’s also fun messing w/ his blackberry. I think Mark’s done very well for himself really: straight out of uni and he has a job with accomodation, travel, and a company car all built in, even if the first car was a ‘94 ford sierra, and managed to break down so spectacularly it broke down an AA van.
God Bless
I am planning to be an Assistant Tent Leader in Cumbria. I was very privileged to be invited by Rachel Stalker to the camp, and I’m looking forward to it. I am also really looking forward to TiM. I was originally thinking of going on TeenStreet, but I feel like some other people could benefit from that more. I already want to be a missionary, but I want to be a missionary now, so I strongly wanted to do some missionary work during the Summer. God’s certainly answered my prayers, and I have at least 3 weeks of mission work lined up ^__^. My holiday is a lot longer than 3 weeks though… Hmmm…
Last night Monika reinstated cake day, and we had a nice big angel food cake, full of gracefully whipped eggs. That was some cake, I tell you. The name really doesn’t appeal to me, aber es hat mir doch gut geschmeckt. We also watched Forrest Gump.
I was going to go Ice Skating this morning with Jonney and Monika, but I was sure I had other priorities that were mre important. I prayed about it, and thought a bit, then remembered I was visiting a lady to see about Russian Tuition. It was a blessing I remembered. That went well, and it inspired me to learn again, which my classes at SFC really hadn’t done.
God Bless, and I hope if you’re reading this you’re having a good day.
