New Beginnings

This year has certainly been a year of big decisions and major changes in our lives. We praise the Lord for his faithful care and direction.

No going back

When we wrote in April, we were beginning to face the possibility that we might not be able to return to Africa and we asked you to pray that the Lord would guide us clearly. Not long after writing, we heard that SIL had decided not to return to Côte d'Ivoire this year.

Thank you for continuing to remember us despite the lack of news for a couple of months. We are grateful to the Lord who has enabled us to settle here in Bristol for a while.

We have now become members at Bradley Stoke Evangelical Church and are enjoying getting stuck in to church life there. It was a painful decision to leave Philip Street where I (Paul) grew up. Our dear friends there have been so faithful in supporting us over our years in Africa, but we felt it right to join with our local church, where we feel we can be more fully engaged.

Dear praying friends,

In all the excitement over Luke's arrival, we had almost forgotten to pass on the news of our decision regarding our future work. We did manage to make up our minds before he was born, but didn't make it public immediately.

It was a very difficult decision to make and as we mentioned last week, both directions seemed good, but in the end we concluded that we should join AIM. We are glad to finally be heading down a single path, but sorry that it won't be within Wycliffe. We are certainly not planning on giving up our Wycliffe friends or our interest in Bible Translation. Wycliffe and AIM cooperate closely in many parts of Africa so we are glad to see it is a change of departments rather than a move to a competitor! We are also very happy that we will be able to remain in Bristol.

We have recently sent in our preferences for a place for Christopher at secondary school. Please pray with us that despite our late application, he will be able to get into a good school where he can reach his full potential.

Paul plans to begin working at the AIM office in a few weeks time, though the process of officially transferring between missions will certainly take longer. We will give further details as we get them.

Thank you for all your kind messages of love and support,

Dear praying friends,

Things are continuing to move in a positive direction in Cote d'Ivoire, but we have known for several weeks that it is most unlikely that any Wycliffe missionaries will be returning to live there before the beginning of the new school year. Having prayerfully considered our personal situation, it doesn't seem like a good idea for us to plan to return 'sometime next year perhaps' knowing we would be leaving in the summer of 2005 so that Christopher can be back in British school for 'year 9'.

So the next question is "what should we do in the UK?" and has God's call to us to serve him in cross-cultural mission come to an end because we have had to leave Africa? Margo is obviously going to be busy with our new baby for a while, so our primary thoughts are concerning where Paul can best use the training and experience God has given him.