Dear friends
In the Woolwich church lately we have been encouraged by looking
at Luke chapter 8 & 9 … We have seen Him who can calm every
storm, expel every demonic being and influence, heal every
disease and sickness and even raise the dead. We have seen Him
who can take a few little loaves and two fish and feed an
immense multitude of people, to the point were they all ate and
were satisfied. And we have been encouraged in this – that this
same Jesus, He knows our every need and He can meet our every
need. In fact we have been encouraged to realise afresh that
there is no need to great for Him, that He is more than able to
meet all our needs as we walk and trust in Him day by day.
We thank God that this has also been our experience over the
last year or so. God has been faithful and gracious towards us
here as a family and as a church and we thank and praise Him for
His wonderful provision.
We want to take this opportunity to thank you as well for your
love and support to us in many different ways. Thank you for
your prayers which sustain us daily in the work of the gospel
and thank you for your correspondence and practical help. May
the Lord bless each of you who stand with us in this way.
Well in regards to the building work, the great news is that we
are really moving forward with these things. We have had some
great meetings prior to and after Christmas which have confirmed
that we are moving ahead. Currently we are putting together a
final planning application, hoping to submit that to the
planning department by May/June 2008, and then we are hoping and
will be praying for planning permission to be granted by the end
of the year. If we are successful in that, we are then hoping to
begin work on the site in spring 2009 and a completion date of
September 2009 is what we are working towards and hoping for.
Please continue to pray for these things.
The work in the church continues to keep us very busy as we lead
God’s people, preach and teach His Word and shepherd the flock .
We are still meeting in the school on Sunday mornings which is
going well and then meeting for all other activities in another
local evangelical church. We are very much encouraged that the
new initiatives we started last year are still running well and
are growing. The football team which is a ministry to men, both
Christians and non Christians, the youth fellowship which
reaches the 13 young teenagers we have in the church and the new
worship group that continues to practice but which is now
playing in the services every Sunday. We thank God too for our
women’s ministry which runs twice a month, one of these being a
home group, while the other being a meeting in the church. It’s
a real thrill to see the Lord working in the lives of different
people, in different ministries who clearly have different
needs.
As a family we are all well for which we are truly thankful.
Margaret now has started to work part time for the London City
Mission in one of their outreach café’s in Covent Gardens,
Central London. Please pray for her as she now has extra
responsibilities and particularly as she travels to and from
London on buses and trains.
  
Benjamin 9
Joel 6
Andrew 4
Benjamin, Joel and now Andrew too are all at school and doing
well. Between them they are enjoying computer clubs, football
training, choir & Boys Brigade. They love Liverpool Football
Club, just like dad and are hoping that they go on to win the
Champions League again.
The next three years for the church is really quite significant
and exciting. The vision that we have can be summed up like this
– In three years we hope to:
· Have a new church building in which to worship and from which
to serve the King
· Become self financing, completely self supporting without
outside help
· Develop a Biblical leadership, training and appointing deacons
and another elder
· Be much more effective in our evangelism, in reaching out to
our community with the gospel
· Have a greater understanding and a greater desire to be the
praying church God wants us to be
Please pray for us as we seek to move forward in all of these
ways. Please pray for wisdom and for guidance as we strive to
become what we believe the Bible and God wants us to be. And
please pray that we will always keep Christ as our central focus
and that He would be honoured and glorified in all that we do.
Again let me say a really big thank you for remembering us, be
assured we often remember you, and please keep on praying and
pressing on until He comes again.
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