Last minute delivery delivery

Just to bring you all up to speed, we have had an amazing past few days here in so many ways. We have seen a few inches of snow -4 degrees celsius temperatures and the Lord continuing to rain His abundant blessings down here on the people.
Late Friday afternoon, we received a call from a local hospital regarding a young lady that had just given birth. She unfortunately had no place to sleep with her baby and they were desperately looking for a bed for her before they discharged her home. This family had little money and could not afford to purchase a bed. Moreover, they did not have enough room in their flat to accomodate a separate bed. It just so happened that a sofa bed had been delivered late Wednesday night. So instead of closing up shop and heading home for the evening we loaded up a sofa bed that we had received less than 48 hours earlier and delivered it to Newton Abbot (a small town about 20 minutes away). With some prayer and removal of door hardware we were able to squeeze the sofa bed in to the room. When we opened up the sofa bed, the young mother was shocked and said, "I didn't expect it to be a proper bed". As we loaded up the old sofa to be taken away, Nigel went back inside to make sure everything was all settled. He walked in to find the couple hugging and crying, completely blessed by the last minute delivery! Nigel then asked them if they could use a food parcel over the Christmas holiday and they were extremely grateful. We spent the drive home just reflecting on the blessing that God was gracious enough to allow us to be a part of.

Finishing the first Week

As we wind down our first week here in the UK, it has been such a blessing to see all that the Lord is doing in and through the people here. One story surrounds a lady who had been contacted by the Mental Health Services department here in reference to difficulties maintain her house.  Basically she had not had anyone through her doors in around 10 years. Anode was contacted to assist her in getting a handle on her house. 6 months ago Anode came through and cleaned her house top to bottom. On a follow up visit around 4 weeks ago, the lady had fallen behind again and the house was a mess. Through weekly visits over the next 4 weeks, she was shown how to keep and maintain her house. Yesterday was the last visit and the crew came to the door to find a house nearly clean and huge smile on the lady's face! She learned how to take care of things herself. She had realized how she had been kept captive, and now had found freedom through the loving devotion of some concerned people.
Currently we are finishing up a job at Torbay School. This school is designed for children with discipline problems. We were asked by the school to remodel their "quiet room". This room was designed to put children in to calm down when they become out of hand. We arrived two days ago to find a what amounted to a jail cell, with wire on the windows, and dark graffitti painting on the walls. Definitely not conducive to calming down an already unruly child. The ceilings had been pulled down as well. First day was spent painting over the walls and tearing out the ceiling, yesterday we put in a new ceiling. Today we will finish up hopefully "speak peace" into these children's lives by providing them a safe place to cool off.

Please continue to pray for:
Hurting families during the holidays
Anode staff and their families as the enemy is trying to distract and discourage them during this time of great service
Anode has been approached to possibly cover a greater area that would greatly expand their workload.  The need is very great.

Will continue to update.

Across the pond

We boarded a plane at 6:35 Wednesday evening after a blessed bus ride up with the team traveling to India. Great opportunities for prayer and fellowship while we prepared for our season of travel. The family traveled well with the Lord orchestrating every step along the way. Arriving in Paignton around 6:00pm local time we got a good nights sleep and started to serve the next morning. Our day started ministering to a lady whose husband was recently arrested. She has two children at home with the youngest being 12 weeks old. She had just recently been granted funding for housing but had no furniture. Anode set her up with a refrigerator, crib, washer/dryer and dresser. After that, we spent the day painting the inside of a house for a lady who cares for troubled teens. Finishing off the day delivering a food parcel to a lady who was living in a hotel after she lost everything in a recent fire. It's amazing to see how much need lays below the surface of a very proud people. Please continue to pray for us specifically:
Sam is recovering from a cold and is having some trouble adjusting
Time adjustment for all of us
Softening of people's hearts in the community
We love you all and will be lifting you up in prayer as well!

Counting the days

I am sitting here this morning reflecting on the goodness and the grace of our Lord. He has done so much for us before we were even born, and He continues to lavish His love upon us! He relentless pursues us with unfailing love. I am in awe, thank you Father!
Bringing everyone up to date, we have purchased airline tickets! So our dates are firm for the 8th of December to the 8th of January. The Lord has also provided a one-bedroom flat for us to stay in for the duration of our trip and our friends at Anode have been gracious enough to support us by paying a portion of the rent!
On another note, I received a phone call last night from the couple that purchased our car about 10 days ago. They wanted to let us know how thankful they were that the Lord had put them in contact with us and have been totally blessed by the car we sold to them. We had a short but sweet conversation which ended by them committing to pray for us during our trip to England. It is amazing how the Lord orchestrates so many things and people together for His glory. He is the ultimate multi-tasker.
We are so thankful for all your prayers, we anxiously await to see what the Lord will do in us and through us. Please keep us in your prayers for: His continued wisdom and guidance, preparation in His word to "put on the whole armor of God", that we would have life-long impacts on the people we come into contact giving all the glory to Him, and anything else the Lord brings to your minds on our behalf.
We love you all
I John 4:9
"In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God ahs sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.

True love gives,

Lloyds

Seasons

Debbie and I are in our last term at The Rock Church's discipleship school called Impact 195. The past 8 months have taken us on a journey of transformation and growth. We have been changed from "me first" type of Christian to a "He first", totally excited and willing to spend the rest of our lives serving Him!
Our original plans were to take our entire family (Deb, Sam 11, Tyler 8) to India with Impact 195 as our final missions trip. We engaged God in faith, and realized that when the deadline passed and He hadn't provided the funds, that He had different plans for us. We continued to seek His will; Debbie and I just casually discussed going to England for our short term mission trip. We started to pray about it and things started happening. People that didn't pledge any support for India, were willing to support our trip to England.
Additionally, God started to move in my heart to continue to simplify our lives. I listed two different things on craigslist and both were sold in a day. Both to Christian people, and we had an oppportunity to bless a struggling married couple about ready to have their first baby! We definitely saw the Lord starting to move in our lives.
Then the world around us started to shake a little bit, God started giving us opportunities to testify to His goodness through difficulty. The upstairs unit in our complex sprung a water leak and flooded two rooms in our condo. Debbie came home to just under an inch of water in the kitchen and bathroom. Although we struggled at times, we found opportunities to bless others and truly show Christ's love to people we would have never had the opportunity to even meet.
So I am sitting here getting ready to buy our airline tickets today, looking forward to seeing God move throughout the entire trip.
We will be working with a group called Anode. They are a Christian based organization that works to meet real world needs of the people of Devon, England. Debbie is seeking the Lord about discipling a few women in a small group setting as well. Sam and Tyler will be serving and continuing their schoolwork.
We will be continuing to share all the Lord is doing, for He is great!