GRACES FIVE

Music Kamp 2011

2011-09-25T09:54:00.001-07:00

THE MUSIC KAMP 2011

Theresa organized the event starting in April for the Installation Chaplain. She ran the week event and scheduled five different musicians for each day’s session. One musician is a

local professional from Harrogate who who we know. We have been sharing Christ with Aide over the years so it was good to meet up with him again. He was willing to play with Mike and to help with one of the sessions.

Mike and Aide played the main music. Aide is trying to break into the music scene in Nashville. We spent three days witnessing to Aide. We met his family and had a really neat time with him. His wife is a very talented professional painter in the local area as well. please pray for this family.

We had over 80 kids attend the event. It was a time of building up the kids in their knowledge and understanding of music. The main theme music for the week was from the Bear Hug Band based out of Costa Mesa.

2011-09-24T04:31:00.000-07:00

Eastern European Appeal

We just wanted to keep you guys update on our Eastern European Appeal. We are headed into another venture - similar to this one - which is our South Africa appeal. Please keep an eye out for this as it is something we have been praying about for a long time. In the meantime, here is a write-up on the Eastern Appeal. This story goes along with the previous posting called "Callum and The Lost Wallet."

God bless you!

The Howards!

We had to fly near the boarder of Hungary this year as the airlines we use were not flying directly into Hungary. We packed a 12 seater van with all the donations and drove to Hungary. It turned out to be cheaper than when we flew into Hungary. God is good. Even though we arrived late, we set up - what is now dubbed “the shop” - in the morning.

Each year we are able to provide many families with a care package. We still run everything by donations. Companies involved include Costco, Starbucks, a soap company, Lush (a natural soap company), ASDA, Sainsburys, and Ryanair. The military base also got involved by donations through the chapel and finally, our church gave items as well.

There are always many encouraging stories that remind us of why we do this and this year was no exception. Some of the shoes we brought were brand new and they were still there by the end of the week. There were 8 U.S. missionaries ministering in Romania who found out about the shoes. One of the ladies who need a pair of shoes came and tried them on and they fit her. Another lady had been praying for some V.B.S. materials to minister to 30 children in Ukraine but she had one problem, she had no materials. When she came into the room she found a whole box of V.B.S. materials we decided to bring at the last minute. It is always neat to see how God is faithful to match what we bring with the very needs that people have.

Ann cut hair, Eddie served,

and Mike and I ran the shop. Our kids went to vacation Bible school and connected with their missionary friends. It was a wonderful time for all.

Cullum and The Lost Wallet.

2011-09-24T04:18:00.000-07:00

Here are the kids and here is the story . . . We call it "Cullum and The Lost Wallet."

The European Appeal starts with items being collected in February until the week before we leave near the end of July. The afternoon before we fly, we sort through the donations and pack the tubs so that a family from the church (the Wren family) can take them down to the airport in their van for transport.

That day was a Sunday and it started to rain. While out in town, my children unknowingly knocked my wallet (“purse” in the UK) out of our vehicle. I had stopped to pick people up to go to church. We came home after church to a note through our door that the parking lot attendant had found my wallet with all of my IDs in it! I didn’t even know it was gone! God was protecting us in a big way but we had to go and get it before we left.

Mike called the gentleman who had the wallet and he was a three hour round-trip drive away. Since Mike went to go get the wallet, I was left to pack and began to wonder how I would get it all done. The kids and I took a moment to pray and went to work on packing the tubs ourselves.

No less than 15 minutes later kids from the neighborhood had come to help us. Little Amelia, Millie, Callum, and of course Seth, Sabrina, and Sophia all started taking items from our house to the tubs for packing. Over the next 3 hours all the tubs were packed, put into the van and all before Mike returned! It was a blessing to have the kids help us. Afterwords we had a little ice cream social to say thank you.

During the time we were packing, Callum’s mom Tracy came over to see what we were doing. She liked the fact that we were doing something to help Eastern Europe.

Seth and Cullum began to play and ride scooters and every spare moment throughout the Summer they played and rode together. They made a ramp from our shed and rode from morning till dawn. They have become great pals.

Seth began to pray that Callum would attend church. Callum has been attending now since the Summer. There is Millie, Rosie, Zara, and Callum who attend church through the kids. It is neat to see what the Lord has done through them.

How good is God? He is totally and supremely and always good. He is the epitome of goodness. While we are partially good, He is totally and completely so! We can trust in Him.

Check this slide show out!

2011-05-25T04:14:00.001-07:00

View Full Album

2011-05-03T15:01:00.001-07:00

Spring is in the air and Cowboy music is on the menu!

2011-05-03T14:25:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! We hope you are well. This Spring has brought some amazing weather, the likes of which are rarely seen in these parts. It has been very warm and delightful to have so much sun! England is absolutly beautiful when the sun shines.

The lambing season got underway this year and Zara invited the kids out to see some of the lambs being born. Below are some of the pictures that we were able to take the next day.

As we wrote, we had our roof blown off one day. It was very windy outside (I said it has been nice weather however this day it was very windy - so much so that a large section of our roof flew off and brought a steady stream of water into our bedroom and along the wall down into the living room and also into the side bed room). The temporary fix lasted until Sunday morning just before church when it started to rain slight and the water started to seep through again. Below are some pictures that show the roofers cleaning the sides of our property.

So apart from a few difficulties, and a new roof, things are back to normal now. We had two dinners this Spring so far. One was very different than our other dinners as we had a cowboy band come to play music. Just in case you don't know, there is a difference between cowboy music and Country and Western music. In fact, cowboy music is more "country" than Country is! These guys love the outdoors, their horses, and sleeping on rocks under the stars! These cowboy musicians sing of good times in the ranch and focus on the things life has to offer on the range rather than moaning about life's troubles.

Here is a picture of the band. As always we had several non-saved there who heard the Gospel and were touched by the music and love they felt from our church family.

Well that is all for now. We hope you are having a blessed Spring!

We cannot forget about the best celebreation of all during this time of the year . . . THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST!

God bless you all!

Love, The Howards.

Spring 2010

2010-12-20T00:13:00.000-08:00

This Spring we had a great start to the year. It began with preparations for our first ever Seder meal. We had a wonderful time with some new faces as well. For those of you who don't know, these outreach dinners are a great way to invite people to the church in a neutral location. Most people would be more inclined to come to a dinner than to church. Once the dinner is finished we have a special guest speaker share their testimony and the Gospel or we show a Christian film that has the Gospel in it. We have had many different people from the area come out to our meals and back again so in that sense they have been successful.

THE SEDER MEAL

The Seder meal was very well received. There were at least 6 non-church people there. We had a good time relating the elements to the church and the Gospel and everyone loved it and said they had a good time. I have spoken to many of the non-churched attendees since we had the meal and they all want to come to another one. (I am sorry that I do not have any pictures - our hard drive broke and so we still need to pay to have the data recovered but we have not done this yet as it is very expensive).

THE MUSIC KAMP

This was in support of the American Military Base Chapel and one of their outreaches. Theresa was one of the two main organizers and Mike did one of the workshops and the main music for the whole event. It was a very interesting week for the kids as they learned a lot about many different instruments.

I know that this is a small picture but Theresa and I are pictured at the bottom left hand side - Mike is holding the guitar and Theresa is holding Sophia. We had over 70 kids in the Kamp and the theme music chosen was from the Bear Hug Band (bearhugband.com).

The last day of the event brought all the families out to hear a message by the Chaplain of the Chapel welcoming them to the many different Chapel events on base and letting them know that God loves them.

EASTERN EUROPEAN APPEAL

This year saw the Appeal grow to over 20 tubs. This appeal, starting in 2001 with just a couple of back packs, has grown to 20 large tubs of dinated items. These items are for mission aide workers all over Europe. The previous year we even minsitered to a family from far away as Iraq. We brought a team from the church again. Ann cut hair and Eddie helped with the logistics.
This year some of the staff in the airports we traveled were amazed that the head office gave us a waiver for all of the tubs. We have seen many miracles.

When we went to Bupdaest on our way back to England Csaba met us. It was good to see him again. Many of you may remember that he was saved in Harrogate while he was in England five years ago when we met him on the street doing otureach. Well, Csaba is doing very well. He is walking with the Lord and serving in a new church plant in the Southern area of Budapest. It is so neat to see him again and hear the great things the Lord is doing in His life. (Again, pray we can recover the information from our hard drive and we will post a picture).

Hope you enjoyed this update. We have one for the Summer and Fall and I hope to update this soon!

Blessings and love,

The Howards.

2010-03-24T12:31:00.000-07:00

Joanne Swansiger Baptism

December 2009.

3 John 1:4
"I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth."

Joanne Swansiger.

2010-03-24T10:55:00.000-07:00

Joanne Swansiger? You know her! You have prayed for her! She received the Lord at last year's Women's Retreat when she first realized that she can have a personal vital relationship with God and read His Word and hear His voice. Before getting reassigned to her next station in Texas she was baptized (we used a local church building). Here is a picture of her with the kids.

How is Joanne doing in Texas? We have spoken to her several times and it appears as if she is really getting used to being back in the States even though she misses her son. She is attending Grace Calvary Chapel with Pastor Joe Marquez in San Antonio, TX and appears to really be growing in the Word. We miss her but are glad to know that God is taking care of her!

November 2009 Thanksgiving outreach dinner.

2010-03-02T12:42:00.000-08:00

Our Thanksgiving pub outreach went very well. The room max. at 40 people and we had a full room. 7 out of the 12 non-saved that were invited attended. Non-Christians heard the gospel and the body was built up. All 7 commented on how they loved the evening. We have had 3 return to more events over the past 2 weeks. God is drawing them. The speaker Phil Pachonies Pastor/Creation Fest. Director had a great time. It was a blessing to have him as he loved what the Lord is doing here and the group of people that we have. We will be doing another one in January.

2009-10-01T13:02:00.000-07:00

September/October 2009

PRAISE:

Mike gathered the men together for a time of fellowship with a walk in the Bolton Abbey area and studied a book by Kent Hughes titled “The Disciplines of a Godly Man.” Everyone loved the time we had.
We have different home group meetings that people are enjoying.
Mike is teaching in the bible college again – please pray for God’s blessing on that.
Theresa and I just celebrated the start of our 14^th year of being married.

PRAYER:

Pray for all that we have on our fall schedule. We want to continue the pub outreaches along with church events and building our servant core.
Pray for those in the body of Christ to continue to grow in their walk with the Lord and produce disciples by becoming more involved and reaching out through evangelism.
Pray for us as a family that the Lord would continue to protect, provide, and empower us as and for His equipping for all that we need.
Pray for Sabrina and Seth in their schooling and the development of their walk with the Lord.
Pray that the church would grow and that God will provide a building for us.
Pray for Theresa as she looks for a facility where she can host next year’s women’s retreat.
Pray for those who are sick; Mr. Mike, our next door neighbor who continues to be on chemo therapy, Helen and her arm, Stan and the pain throughout his body, Zack who has physical problems, Pauline who is very sick and on Opium drips for her pain, and for Ruth Dalton – a very dear and sweet friend, who is also battling cancer and her sister Mary.

2009-08-24T13:58:00.000-07:00

July/August 09'

PRAISE

People have been praying for the city and we have had people visit through personal invites from church members.
One lady who we have prayed for over the past year has prayed to receive Christ.
The UK Pastor's conference was extremely blessed, one of the best we have had. We were blessed to see the unity and the wonderful work of the spirit that He did in each of our hearts.

PRAYER

For those from our church who are serving at the Creation Festival, that the Lord would bless them.
There has been a non-saved family attending the fellowship on Sunday mornings through the invite of another family in the church. Please pray for their salvation. The wife has started reading books about studying the Bible.
We have a lot of administrative aspects of the ministry that we are currently having to do. Please pray for all to be done swiftly and accurately.
For those who are new in the faith, to continue to grow in their walks.
V.B.S. we are helping at the base.
For God's blessing upon Theresa as she administrates the women's sessions and coordinates the facilitators at the mission's conference.