3rd August 2008   

Dear Friends 

This month we honour You, our supporters. We often receive feedback and lots of interesting tit bits and thought it would be great to publish one this month. This one comes from Mary Edley and just reminds us of how kids notice the things we sometimes don’t see and take for granted.  We would like to encourage you to send in short stories, testimonies and anything else that you would like to share for our newsletter and website. And thanks Mary …………………… 

A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, ‘What does love mean?’  The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined:

‘When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn’t bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too.’
Rebecca- age 8


‘Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.’ Karl – age 5


‘Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.’ Chrissy – age 6


‘Love is what makes you smile when you’re tired.’ Terri – age 4


‘Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.’ Danny – age 7


Jon’s Journey’

Yet again I find myself in the position of God speaking into to my life and impacting me so much that it’s almost overwhelming! I am very aware of the need to communicate this to you but I’m barely managing to keep up with it myself! Turning the Tide seems to have been like this a lot of the time; three and a half years in and the vision and what He is doing in us becomes ever more exciting.

Since I last wrote to you, I have visited Chennai in India for the second ‘Global Consultation on Children in Prayer’. It will be impossible for me to put into words here all that I experienced. I am hoping to get up to speed with blogging this via our website very soon. Suffice to say that I received many more insights, many confirmations and encouragements and the Lord broke my heart again and again.

Please do contact me if you would like to know more, for example about India; I would love to have the opportunity to share with you.

Health wise I am delighted to report that I am feeling better and better, with energy levels still increasing. I had the mandatory upset tummy during my second week in India but I seem to have recovered well.

I am getting incredibly excited about the future, especially as it seems that the three year period of ill-health, which I have always seen as a time of preparation and waiting on the Lord, is coming to an end. We are living in such significant times because He has such mighty things in store, especially for the young generation.

The Lord has also been at work in our family as several key milestones have been, or are about to be reached. From September Chris is working in Luxembourg (on his placement year from Newcastle Uni) and Jess is hoping to leave home and go to Uni.

This will leave Beccy and me by ourselves during term times and the plan is that from September Beccy will become more fully involved in TTT. She had a remarkable encouragement just last week with a second school enquiring about a worship club and worship assemblies, similar to those she already leads in Aldrington Primary School (interesting timing!). Beccy is so gifted in teaching children to worship and bringing them into His Almighty presence. Of course worship and prayer are so closely entwined and so this seems to be another part of both the Lord’s strategy and His plan for us. Praise Him!

Carl

It’s the end of term and there is a great deal to thank God about. The schools work has been a real blessing and has brought some great fruit. Even more exciting are the prospects of new projects that are being pursued by our partner, ‘Off the Fence.’

The Youth For Christ meeting went well and the 11 church leaders present have been encouraged to pray and reflect on what was said. A few seem to be particularly keen and those who are interested will be meeting again to discuss the project further. Please continue to pray for God’s will to be done.

The Children Worldwide Camps began on Saturday, 26th July with Teens+ which Carl is leading along with Nigel Thomas and a great team. So Carl has been busy preparing and 28 teenagers have signed up to the week. Please pray for all of the young people to get deeper and closer to Jesus and for new leaders to be raised up.

Carl and Nigel will then be helping with speaking and leading worship for the Teens week (Saturday, 2nd August to Friday, 8th). Please pray for wisdom and for young people to come to know Jesus.

And last but not least…

Our Prayer Mornings are normally held on the second Wednesday of each month.  This month’s planned for Wednesday, 13th August, from 10 a.m. until noon and at St Luke’s Church, Old Shoreham Road, Brighton, BN1 5DD. You are most welcome to join us for some or all of this time. Please would you pray anyway, even if you can’t join us?

Thank you so much for your support; we are more aware than ever how important our prayer partners and supporters are. Without the prayer, we could do nothing!

We are very grateful for all who pray for us regularly and who share our vision for the rising generation. May many, many of them find their purpose and destiny in the Lord Jesus.

Thank you for partnering with us in the Gospel.

With our love and prayers-

Jon and the TTT team – Carl, Mel, Beccy and partners like you