Olympic Torch

2012 is the year of the Summer Olympics in London. The flame from Athens was sent to England and set off from Land's End on Saturday. It made it way through Cornwall throughout the day and came to our town of Liskeard early in the evening. We sourced some Olympic themed tracts and handed out 300 of them in the course of about 20 minutes. It was a great event and it was pretty cool to see the torch go through.

April Prayer Letter

April 28, 2012




Dear Pastor and church,

The Lord has really blessed us these past few months with some exceptional witnessing opportunities. Given the cold nature of people here and a culture that frowns on prying discussion, we usually have to be quite patient to have a quality discussion about a person’s eternal destination. Kent has occasionally run with a man over the past four years. Typically, the man never wanted to discuss anything spiritual related but the past two runs, he has asked questions about us and what we believe. He has heard the plan of salvation and we are praying for more opportunities to water the seed. Probably means more running. Andrea has been working with a young, single mom for almost 5 years. She has tried to befriend her and at times the lady has asked minor questions. This past month, she asked about the true meaning of Easter (she was not sure) and Andrea had an open door to give her the Gospel. Our mechanic whom we have used for the past 9 years inquired the other day about why we were different from the Church of England. One thing these three incidents all have in common is the length of time we have invested in these people. We have been sowing and watering for almost 10 years here in England and are looking forward to a harvest. We have seen some saved but there is a much larger group that we have been patiently working with and praying for. We covet your prayers that we might see these three folks mentioned as well as many others saved.

We also would ask you to pray for the following things on our calendar:

May 19th      Olympic torch outreach

June             Queen’s Jubilee outreach

July 14th      Liskeard Show- we will have a booth again this year

July/Aug      London Olympics-20,000 tracts and 4,000 pins/tracts to be passed out

Aug       Youth Camp

Sept St      Matthews Fayre – we will have a booth for the 5th year



Please do update our mailing address here on the field. Anything sent to our old address will be returned or disappears.

The new address is:



Taey Sekul

Lukes Yeat

St. Neot, Liskeard

England

PL14 6NG



We appreciate all you do for us and thoroughly enjoy when we hear what is going on in your churches as well.





Gossmeyers

Patience

Hello,

We have had some of the best witnessing opportunities in the past 30 days that we have had since we arrived in England almost 10 years ago. Most were from long term relationships and they were the ones who brought the subject up. One was from running, one was from Brownies, one was our mechanic and the last one was a result of a church member being in the hospital and being a good witness.
We came to England with a 20 year mindset. Based upon research, we discovered it usually took 20 years for a church to grow to maturity in the culkture we minister in. The key is to have the patience to continue to water the seeds tha thave been planted and to contine to plant.

Goodbye To A Blessing

Hello,

Many times we as Christians will declare that we are blessed but we seldom seem to give God the credit by telling what God has done for us. Many times when a church has a blessing time for people to share, the same few people share their blessings while most stay silent. Many would claim it is humility which glues them to their seat but the real reason many times is just ungratefulness. We don't think God has done anything too wonderful for us so we do not feel as though He deserves to be praised.

This week we have been discussing the blessings in our life since we moved to England. This was triggered by our having to let go of one of those blessings. In England, the houses are very small compared to the States. The average home is a three bedroom and has 986 sq feet total. This leads to small kitchens and smaller appliances. Most homes here have an under the counter refrigerator. There is not room in the kitchen for a stand up model much less an American size unit. There was a time in the first few years we were here and 3 of the 5 children were in their teens that we had three small fridges. One for food and two for milk. We still ended up going to the grocery store several times a week.
In 2005, when we returned from our first furlough, we found a house that had a decent sized kitchen. Our thoughts turned to a large fridge that would actually be in the kitchen. Upon pricing the behemoths, we decided we could make do with a used smaller unit. Then one day at an auction, Kent saw a side-by-side American fridge. It was in good shape and even had ice and water in the door. It was only a few years old and had retailed for close to $2,000 when new here. Kent bid 10 pounds, someone bid 15 and Kent countered with 20. That was it. No one else bid because no one else had room for it. It cost more to rent a trailer to get the fridge home than the fridge cost. (20 pounds at the time was around $38) Finally a fridge big enough for the family . We were a single fridge family unit once again. English people would come to our house and marvel at the size and at the features. Most went away thinking what rich people these Americans are. When we left for furlough in Dec 2010, the fridge went into storage. Upon returning we found a house but it did not have room for the large fridge in the kitchen or anywhere else in fact. We decided to give it to another missionary but thought it best to test it beforehand. Nothing, it does nothing. Something happened while in storage or transport. So the other day, Davis and Kent loaded it up and took it to the tip (dump). Sad day it was. We really liked that thing but we had a great time that night recounting just how good God was to give us that fridge for 6 years and for only $38. That is worth telling folks about how good God takes cares of his children!

London Pics

Just a few pics of our sojourn to London

Olympic Stadium

Kent and Deidra before the half-marathon just outside of London at Dorney Lake, sight of the Olymopic rowing events.

What Takes So Long?

Hello,

One of the things a family must, must, must get used to when they go to the mission field is that everything will take longer than what you expect. Until you spend time outside her borders you consider it normal and mundane but the United States is the capital of convenience. Things that should take just a few minutes can often occupy several hours, days or stretch into weeks. To apply for a children's passport in the US is not especially hard. A few photos, a trip to the post office and then wait for the postman to bring you the new passport in a few weeks. Easy peasey! To apply for or renew a passport for a child under 16 while outside the US, you must physically present the child with both parents to the US Embassy. No biggy if you live close but for us the embassy is in London which is about a 5 hour drive and then a 1 hr subway ride into town and then a 20 minute walk to the Embassy. You cannot just walk up to the Embassy, you must make an appointment well in advance. Then you must have the proper size, color and style of photo which is different for almost every country of the world. Most British photo shops in our area just looked at us with a blank stare when we inquired about US standard pictures so we had to find one in London.
So, we booked our appointments for Davis and Deidra. The only ones available were on a Friday morning at 8:15AM. This meant either leaving Cornwall at midnight and driving up to London or going the day before and spending the night. We opted for spending the night. Now we have to give our government credit, the US Embassy in London is in a nice area of town. The cheapest hotel we could find for our family was well over our usual budget but we needed to be within walking distance of the Embassy. So we drive up the day before, get the photos made, check into the hotel, took the family to see the Olympic Park and then bedded down for the night. Off to the Embassy for the appointment and two hours later we walked out several hundred dollars lighter and a promise of passports in the next month. It was then we faced a 20 minute walk to the tube, an hour tube ride to the car and a 5 hour drive home. Two entire days spent doing what should/could have been 10 minutes filling out the form and then dropping by the post office.
That about sums up life on the mission field and also in our spiritual lives. Things that should be so simple often prove to be the lingering projects in our life.

Only God....

Hello,

About two years ago we found ourselves needing a run around car. We had a large van that the 7 of us and some luggage could fit into but it was not the best of fuel mileage. I spoke to our mechanic and asked him what car I should get. Andrew said to buy an old BMW diesel 4 door. They are reliable,parts are available and they run forever. A few weeks of bidding on Ebay and we bought a 1994 5 series sedan with a 2.5 liter diesel engine for right at $800. Yes, $800. BMW are not the status cars here they are in the states and the car was 15 years old with 145,000 miles. We drove the car for 14 months literally all over this island and only had to have the oil changed. When we left last December for furlough we were quite sad to have to sell the car as it was reliable, economical and fun to drive. We ended up selling it for $1,500 to a diesel mechanic. Fast forward 14 months....we are back in England and will be needing a car in a few months and so Kent in looking on Ebay one night and guess what he sees? You are correct, he sees the old BMW for sale on Ebay. To shorten the story, we ended up buying the car back for $700. Bought it for $800, sold it for $1,500, bought it back for $700. Do the math, the car is now free. But it gets better. During the time the mechanic had the car he repaired or replaced a number of items on the car. Well over $2,000 worth of parts were installed and who knows how many hours of labour.
So, we have our old car back way better than ever and all thanks to God and his provision.