Merry Christmas 2008!

Happy New Year 2009!

 

Hello Friends and Family,

 

What a year this has been!  God has blessed us and the church more than we can say.  The church is slowly growing-we have had four new adult members join and two children, who will be baptised January 18^th.  We changed the name of the church to Grace Fellowship. Began two adult Sunday School classes, and a high-school class.  We established a prayer room and have begun to focus more on cooperate prayer.  We had a day of fasting and praying at a local retreat center.  We have a group that meets every Tuesday for prayer and Paul has started his “Pit Crew” (pastor’s intercessory team).  They prayer walk the church and pray together once a week.  We are already seeing the results of praying together.  More young families with children have been visiting the church.  The Lord has blessed us with enough people to start painting the church-so far we have painted the foyer, hallways, fellowship hall, prayer room, the outside, and “praise the Lord” the sanctuary, yesterday (December 11^th) we put the new sign on the side of the building.  Much needed work has been done on the building and grounds and the people in the community have been commenting to some of our members about the difference it makes and some have begun to ask questions about the church. 

 

As you see we have been extremely busy this year and the great praise is that God has met all the financial need and more for all the work that has been accomplished.  I forgot to mention that we have begun a “Coffee Morning” on Tuesdays 10-12, inviting the community and neighbours.  We have a “Knitters and Natters” who knit clothing for pre-mature babies in the local hospitals.  In July we lost our first member in death.

 

Paul has done great with the recuperation from knee replacement and all is well there.  Now he is having trouble with his gall bladder, he believes, but the doctors are testing to rule out other things before making a decision.  He has already done 4 tests and will have one more test next week, after that he will see the surgeon again.

 

Jepye is doing well, since only one of us at a time can have problems, HA!

 

Our children and grandchildren in USA are doing well.  Our oldest granddaughter, Karisa, graduates High School in May.  We will be coming home for that event.  We plan to have Karisa and her sister, Moriah, who graduates in 2010 to come to England for a few weeks in June.  We are looking forward to their visit!

 

We wish all of you God’s riches blessings for Christmas and the New Year!

 

Paul and Jepye

 

December 24, 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

Merry Christmas!  This year we have the privilege of celebrating Christmas for the twelfth time here in Central Asia.  Danise and I can still remember our first Christmas here back in 1993…when things were very, very different.  At that time there were scores of us “outsiders” living here…and hardly any local brothers and sisters.  Our community’s Christmas theme back then was, “Jesus is being born in Central Asia!”  One of our colleagues even put that theme to music.

 

But now—praise the Lord—the situation is reversed!  There are hardly any of us outsiders left here, precisely because there are scores of local brothers and sisters who have been “born in Him.”  The powers that be keep trying (like Herod did in the Christmas story) to do away with Him, but our 1993 dream has come true—Jesus is alive and well in His Church in Central Asia.  Our family really cherishes the opportunity to celebrate His birthday here again this year!

 

Well, let us get you up-to-speed on our news since our return here from the U.S. on August 28^th.  First, our kids have enjoyed their new schooling arrangement (we’ve teamed up with five other families to create a “three-room schoolhouse”).  One of the things they like most about it is the opportunity to have a P.E. class with their friends four days a week.  Can you believe they logged fifty miles of jogging over the course of the fall?  We’re sure grateful for several colleagues who work hard to make this a great learning environment for the kids.

 

Danise and I are finding ourselves in “Barnabas” roles with local brothers and sisters a lot these days.  The enemy is attacking hard and—not surprisingly—going after key targets in the Church.  One leader confided in us that he’s had thoughts of suicide.  A couple with an exemplary marriage shared some deep marital struggles with us.  One of the best tactics we’ve found for helping out in situations like these is simply to invite them over for a meal, and to talk and pray together.  Please keep praying with us that our brothers and sisters will stand firm in the Lord.

 

Another fun role that Danise and I have assumed since returning is mentoring a number of the youth in our “M” community in music.  Danise works with the vocalists, and I work with the musicians.  We’ve found that the current atmosphere here tends to make life gloomy for our community…and that music is a good antidote to that gloominess.  So each month we’re involving a growing number of our youth in leading our community in “singing for joy to God our strength” (Ps. 81:1).  It’s been fun!

 

Well, we hope all of you have a great Christmas celebration.  Thanks again for your partnership with us!

 

Keith, for the Stokelds

Grace Fellowship Update

 

This is Stukeley Calling:

 Up to May 11^th (US Mother’s Day and Pentecost) we had been working hard painting, cleaning, and organizing materials.  That was the last Sunday that Serena, David’s 86 year old mother attended services.  Her health had been failing for several years but after May 11^th it went down quite rapidly.  On July 2^nd she went to be with the Lord.  The last month of her life, Pete and Penny stayed with her at night so that David could get some rest so he could be with her in the day time.  Jepye and I prepared meals for them.  Needless to say all painting at the church ceased.

 On July the 3^rd we left to attend the IBC Summer Assembly in Interlaken, Switzerland.  It was a great week of lovely weather, great preaching, bible study, conferences, and meeting up with old friends.  It was a great time celebrating the 50^th Anniversary of the convention.  Bob and Debbie Murff had scheduled to go but only Debbie made it.  Bob was pick pocketed on the underground going to the airport and lost his pass port and wallet and had to return home, poor guy.

 The Monday after we returned was the funeral for Serena at the Crematorium in Cambridge.  Then on Friday the internment of her ashes was at the village church.  Paul had both services.   On September the 7^th there will be a Thanksgiving Service at Grace Fellowship so that several elderly relatives who were unable to attend the other services, David wants to do this so that they can attend. 

 The last week of July we did VBS with a team from Emmanuel in Crestview, Florida and Alconbury Independent Baptist Church.  It was a great VBS but we were disappointed at the low number of children this year (32).  The great news is that two of them accepted Jesus as Lord and Saviour.   We will be praying about what God wants us to do next year.

 Jepye’s ladies class is growing.  She now has 4 in attendance.  We have started a men’s class with David teaching and we have 3 in attendance.  In September we hope to start our “Knitters and Natters” group.

 We are still getting some visitors and several of them come almost every Sunday.

We hope to get back to the painting soon.  Our next project will be to do the sanctuary.

We held a joint Men’s Fellowship breakfast in August with 4 churches represented and 10 men in attendance.

Please pray:

·         For continued growth of the bible study classes on Sunday morning.

·         For the start of the “Knitters and Natters” group.

·         For the Men’s Fellowship Breakfasts.

·         For more people to visit and join the fellowship.

·         For two or three dedicated couples to come and join us to help with the ministry.

·         For someone to come along side and work with the children.

Serving together,

Paul and Jepye of the Stukeleys

 

Last Night of VBS

The last night of VBS was awesome.  It was probably the best night yet.  Both the kids and adults were really into the songs, scripture, and learning about Telling about Jesus.  Several children mentioned they did not want it to end.  I think the total kids for the week were 22 – 24.    We give thanks to God for sending them all to VBS.  Friday night will be the Family nite so Pray that all the family and friends will attend.

Our team flys back Saturday 2 Aug.  We leave Gatwick at 10:40 and get into P-Cola just after 6pm.  Pray for good weather and a safe flight for us.

Wish you all could have been here but know you were praying from home.  Thank you!

God Bless

Diane

VBS Catchup

Hello from beautiful England.

VBS has been going well.  On the second day we had nine new kids attend VBS.  Our age group ranges from 3 to 15.  Our team has been doing Bible Study, Missions, and filling in as kids leaders as necessary.  Sara and Chris had started bonding with the kids and are the first people they ask about upon arriving each night.  At the end of the evening we were asked to lead the Opening Rally the next day as Diana (she is a wonderful volunteer from the Chapel) had another commitment.  

Day Three – lots of prayer for today as we would be introducing the children to Jesus and doing the Opening Rally.  Jo Sue suggested we go to Ely Cathedral and pray and that turned out to be one of the best things we could have done.  It was so serene and praying under the “Way of Life” Cross which symbolizes that life has it’s ups and downs but the end (Salvation) is always worth the journey gave us new momentum and perspective.  We realized the truly important part of VBS wasn’t how many kids came or who was responsible for what but, that the kids were shown the Love of Christ and  that Jesus was offering them Salvation.  This journey really solidified our team.  Sara and Chris did a great job of leading the Worship Rally and preparing the kids for meeting the greatest hero of all “Jesus”.  The kids were pumped up and remained that way for the rest of the night.  During the evening three of the older kids indicated they were ready to accept Christ as their personal savior. 

Day Four – God really is great!  We so love these kids.  Chris and Sara in particular have built special relationships them.  They have been key members of the team as they have been able to build relationships with the kids that would take us adults a long time if ever to do.  Sara and Chris are there to greet them and to see them off and the little kids are all over them.  The older kids have opened up around them and are really sharing their life with them.  Chris has helped out by impersonating several people from the bible and the little kids have come to call him “John the Baptist”, everyday they stop by the bible study room to see if John is coming in to visit with them. 

We were saying tonight that is doesn’t feel like we should be getting near the end of our mission and we are not ready to leave.  We feel like God has definitely moved here but it is just the beginning.  Sara was saying she would like to include Chris Tomlin’s song “God of This City”in the Family day on Friday.  We think it would be perfect as there are “Greater things have yet to come Great things are still to be done
In this city” and that is our heart for the kids, their families, and churches in the area.  I know the members of Grace Fellowship and the other volunteers believe it too.

God Bless

Diane

HBC/VBS Day ONe

Hello everyone,

Justed wanted to give you an update on our first night of VBS.  We had 16 children and 32 youth and adult volunteers. About half of the children who came also attended VBS last year.  The team thinks the night went well.  There was some last minute schedule shifting but as Diana (Worship Rally Leader) said “flexibility” is our middle name.

Please continue to lift us up in prayer as well as the children of The Stukeleys and Alconbury.  Pray that we will be able to share God’s word and the salvation offered by Jesus to all that do not know of it.

At the end of HBC a memorial was played for Carrie and it was said that all of the mission offerings this year will go to the British Cancer Society in honor of her.  JoSue did a fantastic job of sharing to the kids about Carrie and her passion for Christ.  It was a moving tribute.  

As soon as I figure out how to add AVI files I will upload videos.

God Bless

Diane Phillips

Stukeley Calling We Have Arrived

The Team arrived at Grace Fellowship yesterday afternoon and immediately began to help the other volunteers setup for the Game Day Holiday Bible Club (HBC).  We finished decorating, outside preparation, and meeting on the Worship Rally today.  After another good nites rest we will attend Sunday service at Grace Fellowship lead by Pastor Paul and then wrap up last minute preparations before HBC kicks off at 5:30.  Keep the prayers coming for everything to come together and for kids to show with open hearts and minds and a desire to know more about Jesus.

God Bless

Diane Phillips