Dear Friends,
God has made so many changes in our lives since our return from South Africa in June and our last newsletter. The Creation Fest roadshow was incredible. It was so exciting to see the gospel preached in so many places around Devon. The festival itself has continued to grow. With more local people helping in the organization, the small details are being attended to now in a way that was impossible in the past. God has been so faithful.
With the festival and roadshow growing, we have felt that it requires more of Phil’s attention than he is able to give while also pastoring a church. As a result of much prayer, Phil has turned the pastorship of Calvary Chapel Woolacombe over to his assistant pastor Olly Young. Olly was the first person to come to the church. He started out by leading worship and eventually grew to the position of assistant pastor. It has been amazing to see the work that God has done in Olly’s life as he has grown in maturity. On the seventh anniversary of our arrival in England, Phil brought Olly and his wife Elaine before the church and turned the church over to him.
The transition has been so smooth. In a church of 50 people, one would not be surprised to find someone complaining about a change in leadership, but everyone has been so supportive of Olly and Elaine. We have felt strongly for a long time that Olly was to be the pastor. We felt that when he took over, the church would grow tremendously. The last three weeks we’ve had nearly 70 people in church. God is so good. Please pray for Olly and Elaine in their new responsibility, that God would lead them and give them wisdom and grace.
Now that Olly is overseeing the work at Calvary Chapel Woolacombe, Phil will be focusing the majority of his attention on organizing the festival and roadshow. Phil is hoping to go to more areas in South Devon and has been invited by pastors in various other towns and cities around England to bring the roadshow to them. In addition, there are some other ministry opportunities that we are considering for the future. Please pray for wisdom in our decisions for roadshows, the festival, and the other opportunities.
We will be spending some time in California and Florida this winter. We have been living in England over over seven years and feel that this will be a good time to reconnect with people in Florida and California. We will be in California November 14-January 17, then in Florida January 18-February 28. We want to see as many of you as we can, so please contact us by e-mail and we’ll make plans. Please pray for this trip, for safety and good health, for God’s provision, for wisdom as we seek God’s will, for the Lord to open doors for Phil to share the vision, and for spiritual refreshing for the family.
Thank you for your faithfulness.
In Christ,
Phil, Megan, Max, Zack, Kate, and Alex
