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Jeff is on his way home as I write this, following meetings in Malaysia with YWAM Muslim ministry leaders and in Singapore with other agencies in the partnership.  It has been a tough trip for us, as I have been ill with a virus the whole time he was away, and there is a lot going on at the base, and the kids still need to develop their levels of compassion!  We are looking forward to settling back in together as a family for awhile. 

We welcomed a new DTS at the Oval today which is always exciting! There is such a sense of anticipation at the beginning of a school as we meet enthusiastic young people just starting out on their journey to follow God’s call.  We are also hosting an Authors Training School here for the first time on our base.  This school equips people who want to use the written word in ministry in both mission and the secular arena.  I am hoping to sit in on some of their seminars!

We have about 100 boxes of the new 30 Days of Prayer for the Muslim World guide sitting in the hallway of our office!  This event begins in September - don’t forget to order your copy!

Well, you decide!  I finally did a paper newsletter, and it should be winging its way to you in the post shortly.  If you’d like a preview, let me know - we can send it to you via email and save a stamp!

Jeff left this morning for Malaysia, a nation he has always wanted to visit, as he has a keen interest in East Asian peoples.  All the Malaysians I know are friendly, insightful and fun to be with, so I expect he will have a good time!  He is there with a group of leaders from YWAM’s work among Muslim peoples, to pray about the future of that structure within our mission.  He’ll be gone for 10 days, so pray for us because we barely got used to him being back from the US and he’s off again!

He’s also left me with (to coin an English phrase) a stinking cold.  No fun at the best of times, but particularly without Jeff here to make me soup, bring me tea, plump my pillows…’cause you know that happens!

Life is very busy, as you’ll see in the newsletter, so I”m sure the time will fly by.  When Jeff is back, he’s back for awhile….I think!  The partnership always seems to have other ideas!  For more details, email me at tneely@oval.com

This weekend, the Oval is a hive of activity, as we host a football tournament for about 150 young people in teams from all over Europe.  At last check, the Harpenden team was doing rather well!   It’s enormously satisifying to see our facilities being used in this way.  Why else would a YWAM base have the space to create four football fields, if not to host outreach events like this one!  Everyone is having a great time!

Samuel, going for a penalty at the football tournament!

This weekend also gave us an opportunity to do a trial run on the nearly-completed “Oval Cafe”.  We have been working on renovating a front room at our central administration building into a coffee shop to benefit our YWAM community (as a space to hang out that isn’t work or residence) and provide a place to welcome anyone from the local area.  We are thrilled with the result!  The room looks better than we anticipated and the volunteer staff are full of enthusiasm.  It’s going to be the best coffee shop in Harpenden, I think, and there are quite a few to compete with - but none with our charm, atmosphere and quality!   Follow the progress at www.ywamharpenden.org 

Jaela, learning the art of the barista, with Whitney - our talented cafe manager!

Jeff is in the US this week, for partnership meetings.  He’s home for a couple weeks and then off again to Kuala Lampur in Malaysia!  He’s excited about that as he has always wanted to visit Malaysia, a religiously diverse nation which is home to one of the largest Muslim populations in Asia.  He’s there for meetings with other leaders from our mission about the future of this particular area of ministry - would love to tell you more if you send me an email at : tneely@oval.com

I have great intentions of doing up a newsletter this week!  However, I am distracted by work on the first issue of the International YWAMer, which is a source of great excitement!  Here’s some BIG news - You can now subscribe to the IY e-zine yourself at : www.ywamlist.org/iy  We haven’t “prettied up” the sign up site yet, but we’re getting to it all, and you can sign up regardless - it’s free! 

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What a great time we had in Sweden!  The weather was perfect - sunny and warm - and we enjoyed a restful week at our beautiful YWAM base on the west coast.  The landscape in Sweden is lovely, particularly along the coast, and Samuel did indeed take a dip in the North Sea.  It was freezing!  The kids found lots of new friends at the base - Samuel even learned to order ice cream in Swedish!  It was a refreshing time for us all to be together as a family. 

Jeff is off to the USA for partnership meetings on Wednesday.  He will be in Colorado for a few days, also, to check in with his family.

Here are some snapshots of our trip:

Jeff and the kids at the Uddevalla harbour.

Samuel at the top of a trail behind the YWAM base where they planted a cross. 

On a boat tour in Gothenburg City - going under the lowest bridge in the city, called “the Cheese-Slicer!” 

As I write this, Jeff is discussing global trends in missions with a group from the partnership.  They have been hard at work all day, though it’s Saturday.  Some of them have travelled from as far away as West Africa and the US, from various other agencies.  As always, it is a joy to work in unity with others who share the same passion for taking the news of salvation to those who have not heard it yet.

This was a crazy week for me!  On Monday we discovered that over the weekend about 40 metres of lead flashing were stolen from the roofs of two of our buildings.  Lead is a valuable commodity at the moment and the theft of it is very common.  We have had it happen before, but not for a long time and not from these buildings - the preschool and the National Office.  It’s the bare-faced cheek of someone driving onto the property, putting up a ladder and hauling off our roof which is just appalling!  Extra time was put in to deal with roofers, insurers and police and step to up our security which always seems to be more of an inconvenience to us than to any potential criminal! 

I also spent some time this week with a producer from the BBC.  For those English among you, you’ll appreciate that YWAM Harpenden is to be featured on “Songs of Praise”.  SOP is a weekly program which has been on for years, featuring hymns sung by congregations from around the country interspersed with interviews and profiles of different expressions of the Christian faith.  A couple on staff are appearing in an interview of people who have given up high-paid salaries to work full-time in Christian service, and there will be a brief overview of the ministry of YWAM filmed on the Oval, to be filmed later next month.  Watch this space for details! 

Next week is half-term and, as Jeff has been travelling so much this year and we are not going away this summer, we decided to take a short break.  YWAM is useful as a place which has “home” in almost any country, and we are going to Jeff’s original YWAM base - Restenas, Sweden. We’ll stay in a guest house there, and the kids can enjoy the Swedish countryside (Jeff has bet Samuel he will not take a dip into the North Sea!) and hopefully re-charge.  It feels like we really need it.

Good news for Jeff on the gout front!  He saw a specialist who has worked out a medicine program which should render him pain-free in a couple of months.  We are relieved to have seen someone who could help so quickly, and pray for swift stabilisation of his condition.  Samuel also saw a new pediatric consultant this week, about the persistent headaches and nausea he experiences.  We felt like this doctor really heard us and is taking steps to pursue a diagnosis.  A diagnosis would be good, but we would prefer healing, and keep praying for it. 

Samuel has recently been impressed with a biography he is reading about Cameron Townsend.  If you or your kids have never read the “Christian Heroes Then and Now” series by Janet and Geoff Benge,  get ahold of some and be inspired!  (go to : www.worldchristian.org if you’d like to order the books and see the profits go to missions!)

OK, I better close now, or my title will be too long - all things that we talked about this week!  Pray for us as we R&R this week, and send us an email to say you are!  tneely@oval.com