"We'll keep a welcome in the hillside.
We'll keep a welcome in the Vale
This land you knew will still be singing
When you come home again to Wales."
We'll keep a welcome in the Vale
This land you knew will still be singing
When you come home again to Wales."
"Land of My Fathers..."
As the Welsh National Anthem says, Wales in indeed the land of my father, and my home, though I haven't really lived there for a rather long time. Still, I did cheer, as I always do, when we crossed the Severn Bridge from England to Wales and saw the Welcome to Wales sign.
We'd been in South Wales two years ago, so it was great to go back to visit most of the churches we'd spoken at then. And great to see that though the numbers of people attending these churches where the Holy Spirit had once moved so powerfully (particularly during the Welsh Revival of 1904-1905) are small, their passion for the Lord and for His mission of reaching the world is not.
At Bethel Baptist Church in Crumlin, it was lovely to recognize some faces and to remember again that these people have been praying for the radio ministry for years and years. With very strong One Mission Society/Men for Missions connections, (their pastor is Jeff Jones, MFM UK President), they'd got behind the previous solar radios project, and had a model of the old radio at the front of the sanctuary. We loved our time with these people, who'd come out on a Monday afternoon to hear our update.
The girls did a great job everywhere directing people to sign up for our mailing list, take a look at our photo-book, and take a prayer card.
Their Missions Board: now we have an official prayer card that'll be added to the many faces and ministries that this church prays for regularly (they've been praying for us regularly too, even without a prayer card!)
With the Scannell family
Lunch at my aunt Mary's house gathered some of the Scannell clan together for a few hours.
My youngest cousin David's son, Finlay, with his tiger mask. The girls had fun playing while us grown-ups talked (and drank tea :)
Grandpa and the girls.
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| My dad's sister Mary, my dad, me and my grandma's sister, Aunt Yvonne. |
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| The others joined in for the photo: Storly, Finlay, Hannah & Esther, and my dad's wife, Gill. |
Lodge Farm
One of the sweetest moments of our whole trip for me was being back at Lodge Farm Church in Caerleon. When I started going to church as a teenager, after friends from school invited me to Young People's group on Thursdays, it was at Lodge Farm, in the room called the Cowshed, where I first made connections with the people and heard the truth that they shared that would lead me a few weeks' later to the Saviour.
Great to enjoy fellowship with these precious people again. Great to share with them what God has been doing with us. Great to have Dad there. And great to see Bronwyn again (a family friend who I've recently reconnected with on Facebook after about 30 years...)
And great to drink tea and be refreshed again as we mingled. Roland on the left taught me to drive back in about 1990, and Ruth and her husband Owen took good care of us as we stayed in their home this time.
Great to see the Jones family!
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| Us with Bronwyn and her daughter Erin. |
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| Me and Maria. |
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| With Phill and Maria. Awesome to hear what God's doing in and through them. Phill's now a full-time worker - Evangelist, Youth Pastor & Schools Worker - at Lodge Farm, and we loved hearing of lots of great opportunities they're having to go into schools and share their faith. |
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| The Jones girls, Erin and our girls. |
Brecon Beacons
During one of many occasions pouring over maps - online, on paper, phone or Sat Nav (the British term for the GPS you might have in your car), we realized that our next church meeting was in Trecynon, not far from the edge of the Brecon Beacons National Parl, so we spent the day out in the town of Brecon, drove back through the Beacons (mountain range in South/Mid Wales), did a quick change into 'church clothes' at a Visitor Centre before arriving in Trecynon.
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| Our rented-from-a-missionary-car-services-organisation 1980s Mercedes Benz. Plenty of room in the bag to lug all our luggage all over the place. No air-conditioning though, which we actually needed - we had lots of warm, sunny days. |
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| Enjoying the Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal. |
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| The girls were amazing friends for practically the whole trip. Lovely to watch! |
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| An interesting stop at a cafe inside the Parish Church. |
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| Welsh souvenir shop - and no, I didn't buy anything. |
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| The Brecon Beacons |
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| Sheep! |
A lovely day out before we headed to Bryn Sion Baptist Church in Trecynon, near Aberdare.
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| Love watching people welcome our girls! |
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| Leader Paul Poloha (OMS Board Member) asked Storly and the girls to sing a song in Creole, so they sang Jezi Renmen Tout Timoun Yo (Jesus Loves the Little Children). |
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| A lovely time to enjoy fellowship. |
Castle
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| Spotted some baby birdies. |
Sirhowy
In the evening, we were at Bethel Pentecostal Church in Sirhowy. With just real genuine people.
And our last meeting in South Wales - a Youth meeting of the Assemblies of God churches in the area. Great, lively worship. Great to see plenty of young people there, some with strong desires to pursue missions in the coming months.
Next stop: north-west England, for an OMS meeting at Crown Lane Free Methodist Church near Preston.
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