Gold from the Dirt ?

Isn't it amazing how God brings gold from the dirt!  Out of what appears to be barren land, new shoots appear and carpets of daffodils wave their golden heads almost prophetically. Ifor spoke recently about poppies and how they covered the disturbed trenches after lying dormant for sometimes a hundred years.  I had a sense that there are numerous "poppy seeds" lying dormant in Breconshire.  The ground just needs disturbing, then God will astound us. Many people are noticing so many bluebells this year, even cropping up in places where they haven't been known to grow before.  God is cropping up in ways and places that wasn't the case when we first came here.  We are noticing more openness to Him among the farming community.  "The times, they are a-changing!"

In the run up to Angus Buchan's visit to the county on 10th June at Bronydd Mawr Farm, Trecastle, I have sown fifty copies of his book "Faith Like Potatoes" into the hands of mostly farmers we know.  These have been gratefully received and quite a few people have lent them on to their friends and family after reading them. 760 miles well spent of driving around the county! We've put up nearly eighty posters inviting people to the five film shows of the enacted story of the book, projected in different village halls (all with permission).  The Brecon and Radnor Express has printed not just the advert we put in, but also the article we wrote, accompanied by a good sized photo of Angus.  We don't want people hearing about the event afterwards and wishing they'd known before. Whether people choose to come to hear him speak or not, the stories of what God has done in his eventful life have found their way into people's homes. More details on www.bronyddmawr.org.uk

The Faith Like Potatoes DVD has been translated into 17 different languages and over two million copies have been sold worldwide to an estimated audience of 100 million people!  Our first village hall showing of it attracted just four people! Yet we came away greatly encouraged as those who came were keen to advertise the June event to their friends, family and those they work amongst.  We put out copies of Faith Like Potatoes, The Shack, Heaven is for Real and The Final Frontier as they all related to an aspect of Angus's life story. These four were keen to borrow the books and share them with each other.

The following evening we showed the film in Erwood.  Thirty came to that showing.  One woman came early, having travelled twelve miles, because she saw the article in the newspaper and thought it looked interesting.  She didn't appear to have any Christian connections.  Afterwards she was hungry to borrow three of the books we'd put out.  Another woman painfully walked to the hall with a very sore foot.  During the showing of the film she felt tingling in her foot.  By the time she got up to go home she found she could walk easily.

We showed the film in Upper Chapel the next evening and twenty people came.  All of these were Christians, yet they went away inspired and keen to advertise the June event amongst those they know.  The next two film showings will be in Crai on 14th May and Llandovery on 18th May.  Meanwhile our copy of the DVD will hopefully be circulating around different homes.

Until last week the shed at Bronydd Mawr, Trecastle, which will seat up to 700, has been full of young cattle.  Will God bring gold out of this mucky place?  It has been watered with a lot of prayer.  Ifor has been help- ing to steam clean the shed while others have been preparing the ground outside.

In May last year our hill prayer group planted a potato on a hill top as a prophetic symbol of growth we anticipate God bringing to his family in Breconshire. Last month our hill prayer group went to pray at Bronydd Mawr.  Before we prayed around the cattle shed, we gathered to pray at a huge cross that had been erected on a hill top on the farm just the day before, visible from the A40.  It is 28 foot long, six foot of which is in the ground and 22 feet majestically standing tall.  The impact of it as we gathered around it to pray was awesome. When Stuart and Liz went to seek permission to erect it on their

land, there was strong resistance until they mentioned an evangelist coming from South Africa. That changed everything, since they had heard of Angus and even had many of his books!  So the cross is up!  Initially they couldn't get it in the ground because of solid rock. When Stuart and Liz drove down to the main road, they saw it needed to move a few feet over from where they were trying unsuccessfully to dig.  They moved it to the more visible spot and it went in easily.  Reminiscences of Ffald y Brenin?  We pray God will also use this cross powerfully.

Farming funerals are often huge around here.  Ifor went to the local funeral of our neighbour's brother.  Over 750 people came to it!  Then Ifor took the funeral of a farmer's wife who loved Jesus and her life showed it, so very easy to preach Jesus there to the nearly 300 who attended.  My elderly friend, with whom I worked at the Mountain Centre when I was a teenager, had his funeral this morning and his widow was singing Ifor's praises to her relative afterwards.  He had a lovely faith in God and regularly attended the village chapel. His huge funeral reflected how so many loved him.

This afternoon Mervyn was inducted as President of the Breconshire Baptist Association.  After showing the nine minute video taken in 2010 (search youtube for "there is a light in the valley") Mervyn talked about how God prompts him with what to do on the farm day by day and challenged us all to repent of anything that could be blocking a closeness in our individual relationships with the Father.  He encouraged us all to hold hands in a large circle in the chapel and do this together.  It was very powerful and uniting and God's presence was very strong.
After Ifor had prayed for Mervyn, Anne (Association minister) prayed for Ifor as he comes in as President of the BUW next month.

Ifor continues to milk three mornings a week at Glasbury.  Over the winter the parlour has been extended to take 64 cows at a time and the herd of New Zealand Friesians has been increased to 500.  (I could only fit some of the herd in the photo!) There are always two milking at a time, sometimes three if extra things need doing.  Glasbury  has a local book club where the secretary of Glasbury Chapel has suggested "Heaven is for Real" as being the next book they all read and comment on.  This suggestion was well received and many were intrigued by the review of the book. 

We had our four year review with the Baptist Union at the end of April.  As we spoke about what God has been doing, what we have done and been through and how we see the future panning out, it had the effect of encouraging us, as well as the review team.  So that was good.

Ifor was invited to speak at an outreach dinner in Llandysul where he challenged the thirty people there to 'let go and let God', using lots of 'God stories' from our life so far.

The lady in the nearby village I've been praying with is continuing to receive healing from Jesus.  During the Easter service in her local church she felt the Holy Spirit come on her very gently but powerfully and the little pain she had left melted away.  She is now able to walk without frame, or crutches and is even able to drive again.  Praise God.

On the family front we have very exciting news.  Our daughter Becky gave birth to our gorgeous grandson Thomas Owen Bela Matyus on 17th April in Cardiff, weighing in at 8lb 6oz.



Our equally gorgeous first grandson Caleb is now six months old and was quite intrigued with his younger cousin when he came down from Chester to meet him.  We are so blessed, as are both babies and their parents.   Both babies will need their own passports to travel out to Estonia at the end of May for our daughter Lucy's marriage to Timo.  Ifor will be taking the service and our three other daughters will be bridesmaids, along with a good friend of Lucy's. We're looking forward to it and to meeting Timo's family.

Thank you again for your support and prayers.  We feel we are on the edge of another stage in our work here and that God is very definitely on the move.



Early Spring Update 2014

Wasn't it lovely to see the snowdrops coming through after a dreary, wet winter?  They always bring with them the promise of a new season, and Ifor and I both feel that 2014 is going to be significant.  This sense is also held by many Christians we speak with, so we go into the new year with hope and expectancy, watching God's Kingdom quietly spreading.

We have now been in Breconshire for four years, and sometimes we are frustated with the lack of any obvious progress or breakthrough, but Ifor was encouraged recently with a prophecy he received while at a New Wine Cymru leaders meeting. It went something like this......"Ifor I saw you wearing what appeared to be 'school shoes', and I felt God was saying that you are like a teenager still at school but frustrated, wanting to leave school and experience life in the 'real world'. But God is saying he has put you in a situation where he wants you to learn. He has sent you back to school, and you need to accept that, and focus on learning what God is showing you."   We recognise the truth of that, but at the same time feel as if a new term is about to start.

It was good to meet up with Sarah and her husband Brian in Hay.  She moved here soon after we did and like us has been watching to see what she thinks could work in this county.  Talking with other mums at the school gate, she has become aware that a number of them would be interested in exploring Christian spirituality together with their children.  Starting this coming September Sarah has planned a gathering every other month around bring and share food, with such intriguing titles as "Communion by numbers", "a Nursery Rhyme Mass" and "Celtic Breaking of Bread".  The aim is to learn together in creative ways how to be the body of Christ in their community.  I will be supporting her in this.

A major event this year will be the visit of Angus Buchan, the South African farmer who has seen

many miraculous answers to prayer, especially on his farm.  Breconshire will this year be the venue for the Wales visit on his tour schedule.  The Barn at Bronydd Mawr, Trecastle, will seat 500 to700 and the planning is underway.  Although a well known speaker in other parts of the country, very few in Breconshire have heard of him.  So far we have bought over forty copies of his book "Faith Like Potatoes" which tells his story.  We are taking these to different farmers we know around the county and encouraging them to lend them to their friends and families before the event on June 10th. Included in the books is a coloured postcard invitation to the event and to one of three (so far) village hall venues where we will be showing the film of the book at the beginning of May after most of the lambing will have finished.  These have been very well received.

Also included in these books are cards informing farmers about the Goshen Project by directing them to the website http://goshenproject.blogspot.co.uk .  This is a recent project where a small group of intercessors in Breconshire pray confidentially for farms and farmers on request.  Based on the fact that the cattle of the Israelites who lived in Goshen, Egypt, did not suffer the plagues sent on the Egyptians, this prayer group intercedes for farms under threat of TB and other things.  It is advertised to the farmers as "Seeking practical and spiritual solutions to farming problems through prayer."

The very first person to receive a 'Faith Like Potatoes' book invited me into the lambing shed where a lamb was born at my feet. She accepted when I offered to pray for a painful frozen shoulder she'd had for a few weeks and was amazed when the pain left and she was able to lift her arm higher and higher.  I'd prayed beforehand that as club leader for one of the Young Farmers' Clubs she would open a way there for me.  Without my mentioning anything, she was asking me about the possibility of showing the Angus Buchan film to her club!  Another farmer I took a book to was also open to prayer for her knee, which needed an operation. She felt a tingling there as I prayed which surprised her.  As the pain was not constant, she said she would let me know.

One farmer arranged for Ifor to go on a lambing course.  This is run by a vet and popular with both experienced sheep farmers and beginners.  Ifor learnt a lot as he has done very little lambing.  This farmer then had him cement his learning by putting it into practice the following week and left him to it for a couple of afternoons during which time Ifor lambed twelve ewes including dealing with awkward presentations.  Ifor is hoping to be able to help farmers struggling on their own during these busy couple of months where they have very little sleep.

The Royal Welsh showground is a wonderful place to pray into all sorts of national decisions and situations around Wales as many businesses have buildings there for the show weeks.  This time the outdoor prayer group prayed for the young people of Wales outside the Young Farmers building, the Welsh Assembly outside that building, the lambing, etc. in the sheep shed, situations affecting cattle in the cattle sheds, and that God would be glorified in the main ring where some of the best of His creation will be on show.

The outdoor 'hill prayer group" prayed at Mervyn's farm in Lower Chapel. He is converting an old barn into a house, and had previously seen it as a purely financial venture, but more recently he is feeling that God wants to use the place for something spiritual. None of us know what God's plans are, but as we prayed we all got a sense that God has real plans for the place. One of the group shared a personal matter, and as we prayed and saw God minister to her, we all felt as though this was just a small sign of how God is going to be dealing with people in that place in that place in years to come.

Last month we drove down to Wentloog near Newport to visit Nigel and Maria Phipps. This couple have recently started a growing home church which meets weekly with people taking it in turns to provide the evening meal which always ends in sharing the bread and wine.  We stayed on to join their gathering of mostly unchurched guests in the evening.  This included three teenage boys who are just as keen to come as their parents. The concept of multiplying these home churches was introduced from the start and so already a few of the group are looking forward to starting their own groups from amongst their neighbours.  Nigel and Maria's website is: www.housechurchnetwork.co.uk  The following week Ifor went down to the group again as they were having an evening where they were considering their vision for home churches.  This week Ifor went down to a meeting in Cardiff where several pioneer church planters came together under the auspices of the Baptist Union.

I was asked to be the speaker at the Women's World Day of Prayer for a several churches gathered in Gilwern.  The theme of the day was "Streams in the Desert" with an Egypt focus. I centred it on part of Hebrews 11 and spoke about "Hope in the midst of apparent Hopelessness", ending with praying for commitment and for being so filled with the Holy Spirit that "streams of Living Water" would flow out of each of us to change the situations around us.  It even got applauded!! Around here very few people comment on the sermon, but that was not the case this time.  I pray that the people there will continue to let the Holy Spirit work in and through them. It turned out that my talk was spot on for a first timer there whom I got to pray for afterwards.  She says she now wants to start going regularly to one of the churches represented.

Recently Ifor took the wedding of the daughter of a local vet.  The wedding was held at the ancient chapel of Maesyronnen, built in the 1690s by converting the cattle shed of a traditional longhouse. It is has hardly changed since then and was visited very recently by Prince Charles because he was intrigued by it. The name of every minister of this chapel since its founding is engraved on the pulpit. The chapel is the white part of the photo, the nearest half being the cottage. Seven of the members of this chapel came on the Alpha course we led last year at the café in Glasbury.

The monthly youth group in our home has not met since the end of November, mostly because of many commitments the majority of the teenagers have with events with the Young Farmers Clubs.

This has provided time for me to reflect on the way forward with them.  Usefully in the middle of this time, a Youth Leaders' Retreat was held at Llangasty, organised by the Officer for Youth of the Anglican diocese.  He has lent me some resources which I might use.  Whilst standing outside under a heavily laden larch tree, gazing out at the beautiful lake view, God drew my attention to the clusters of larch cones suspended above me.  Some twigs carried many, some just a few, rather like the grains on the ears of wheat Jesus referred to.  As I pondered this in terms of home groups and effective outreach, a beautiful rainbow shone!

 

I enjoyed doing a Uganda evening with the Brownies in Brecon.  This invitation came about as a

result of contact made at Brecon Museum when I lent some things for a big guiding display there soon after we moved here.  She was leading the Brownies that week as the Brown Owl was away, and remembered me!  The girls were very interested in slides showing life over there and had fun trying to balance books on their heads whilst dancing Ugandan style!  They also had a go at making beads, learning some Lugandan words and singing a praise song in Kiswahili.  Their parents were generous in buying the jewellery made by the Ugandan children to help pay for their schools.

I was also invited to do a slideshow on Horticulture in Kenya and Uganda - a new one for me - at the Fuchsia Society which meets just outside Brecon. It went down well and resulted in an invitation to have a free stall selling Ugandan jewellery at Brecon Garden Club flower and veg show in September.

One of the schools I sell these beads for was founded by  Moses, mostly for orphans.  He cleared the rented site which was a town rubbish tip, built and leads the school as a Christian headmaster, but now the landlord wants the land back.  He has been increasing the rent ridiculously and has now evicted them. Moses fortunately now owns land near his home and would like to build a boarding school on this so the same children can continue their education.  His request for prayer and money with which to do this is urgent.  PLEASE contact us ASAP if you or your church could help with this.  We can vouch for his honesty and heart 100%.


I have joined a local walking group which brings together a growing number of people each month.  This gives a lovely opportunity to chat with and get to know people and our dogs approve!
I also went to a baroque concert in a church with my auntie and her friend in Llangynidr.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that I already knew some of the people there that evening and they knew me.  Because of deep flooding, we had to find a different way back!

This week Ifor was elected to be the next president of the Baptist Union of Wales, starting in June at the BUW Assembly.  This is at a critical time when the English and Welsh speaking wings  of BUW are considering the possibility of joining together in some way with other Baptist groups to form one united Baptist family in Wales.  He has been involved in the move towards this for the last few years.  He is still Superintendent for Breconshire and chairs the National Settlement Team.

I prayed with a Christian lady in a nearby village recently, after a complicated operation and little progress.  The following night she was able to turn over in bed for the first time since the operation three months previously. Praise God!  Also she found she was walking with her frame more easily, had more freedom with one of her exercises and no pain in her leg.  At the day hospital she is now introducing God into conversations and senses God will use her increasingly in this way.  However, progress seems to be slowing now. I intend to visit and pray with her again soon.  Its lovely to hear how God is using her even through this convalescence.

I took a friend to see the Riding Lights Theatre company performing "Inheritance" - their excellent interpretation of the Passion of Christ. At the close, people who wanted to respond at the foot of the cross were invited to come forward, read a prayer of commitment and use the oil of "the fragrance of Christ" on themselves as they wished.  She wanted to come forward with me to do this.  It was a lovely moment and very special.

We had a shock at the beginning of February when my wonderful dad died suddenly but with a

lovely look of peace on his face.  He'd had heart failure for years, but when the time came he slipped away suddenly but peacefully.  He had fallen so gently as a glass of water on a wobbly table was still intact.  He was about to drive into town, as he did daily to get his paper and do his shopping.  At 92 he cooked lovely meals, looked after himself and still did a bit in the garden.  Last year was the first time he let us dig his bean trench. (He back-filled it though!). In the days before he went to be with Jesus, Dad had been involved with the AGM of Probus and taken an active part in a  long meeting planning the next five years of the Brecon Wildlife Trust he and Mum had played such a major part in. A few days later, when Iolo Williams came to Brecon Theatre as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Wildlife Trust, a public tribute was paid to him in front of the packed theatre. Ifor led his funeral service in the church where Dad had been warden and treasurer for so many years.   Dad's advice was still being sought even after the well attended funeral when a warden of the church hopefully asked if Dad had made any notes or comments on the survey of the church building!  He will be greatly missed by so many, especially me.  A huge thank you to all who came to the funeral, sent me cards, flowers and those lovely comments on Facebook.  They really did make a difference and it was only last week I took down the cards.

One plus was that Lucy and Timo came home a
week earlier for the funeral than they had planned.  This meant we could spend some time with them before they went to check on a team they had sent to Liverpool.  We joined them again a few days later for Lucy's hen do at Katie's home in Chester.  Lucy and her very pregnant sister Becky were dressed in loo roll wedding dresses by two teams.  After more games and food we all went go karting before a lovely meal out.  Their wedding will be in Estonia at Timo's church and home at the end of May.  Becky's baby is due mid April and will need a passport to get out there!  So will young Caleb who now has a tooth!

For those of you visiting us, the bridge is now open three months ahead of time after eight months of drastic surgery and reconstruction.  The village normally less than a mile away has been a 15 mile round trip all this time!  The nearby craft centre had organised a group together with some Young Farmers to dance on the bridge to celebrate the opening.  Ifor was asked to be one of the marshals wearing a high viz jacket.  We had been caught in a stingy blizzard on a hill just an hour before, and here these girls were, dancing in summer dresses!  A hot cuppa back at the craft centre warmed us all up afterwards:)

Thank you all for your support and prayers.  We appreciate you all.

 

 

Nov/Dec 2013

It's great to work with children and youth, but some of our greatest encouragements come from the 'oldies'. A ninety year old lady in a nearby village inspired me greatly.  She loves Jesus but felt she wasn't doing much to further His Kingdom here on Earth.  So now she catches a bus into town and spends time chatting with people in cafes, regularly bringing Jesus into the conversations, talking about her relationship with Him and suggesting they talk with Him too.  She does so much of this that she now spends £15 per week on coffee! What an inspiration.  Since we moved here nearly four years ago, she has been praying for us every day and intercedes regularly for those she meets.

Wearing her cracker crown

Another lady who has inspired many is
our neighbour Mrs Ena Pugh.  On 4th January this year, she and her twin sister celebrated their 104th birthday in two separate hospitals, having both suffered from falls in the previous month.   Until then they both lived independently without carers, catching the bus on Fridays to meet up with each other in Brecon. On her birthday, Mrs Pugh was excitedly showing us all her cards and chatting about chapel where she loved to go.  A few days earlier, when another visitor mentioned chapel, she launched into the Lord's Prayer, interspersing the lines with intercession for her family and neighbours and situations around the world, finishing with "Jesus is so lovely, He's so kind."  She died in the early hours of 6th January and at her burial a song thrush sang by her grave.  Mrs Pugh was always giggling and full of fun.  People who think of many Christians as hypocrites refer to her as a real Christian.  Like the ninety year old above, Mrs Pugh also prayed for us every day.

Another great friend, intercessor and inspiration was Fred Blount who with his wife Mary have been praying for us every day for the last 36 years.  Amazing! We were so glad to have been able to say Goodbye, talk and pray with him not long before he died in December.  He was another one who was so full of the joy and love of Jesus.  Thank you God for the many you encourage to pray.




Praying from Llangynidr Mountain

In November we joined with the hill prayer group in praying over Ystrad Fellte.  This had a sense of being the gateway in the south west corner to the county.  With the wind blowing from the south west, we prayed that the wind of His Spirit would blow across the whole of Breconshire and beyond. In December we prayed from Llangynidr Mountain over the village below, and over the farms, other villages and nearby Crickhowell.                                                    




Felindre with dairy farm where Ifor
milks in the background

Earlier this week we prayed on a hill overlooking Felindre where Anne has recently finished leading a Christianity Explored course in the village hall for local people, and will shortly be starting a sequel course. Just before Christmas, Ifor led a carol service in the same hall.  Among the many who came was a woman from Glasbury (who we'd chatted with in the pub there and encouraged to come). Ifor mentioned the course in his sermon and she told me afterwards that she thought she might like to go on that course!  From the hillside we also prayed for my hairdresser in the village who's son died in a cliff fall a few months ago (see previous blog post) and for a young mum who has started a successful mums and tots group in the village hall.  She came to the prayer and discussion group we were leading in homes last year with friends and members of Glasbury chapel. The farm where Ifor milks stood out clearly from our viewpoint, so we prayed for Ifor's colleagues on the farm. In December Ifor's boss invited us to the staff 'Christmas do' in a local pub where 16 of us enjoyed a great meal and a wonderful evening.

For a long time I have been praying for more openings in local schools.

Then suddenly two contacted me and booked me for the same week!  Someone from Llyswen school rang to check if I was the same person who organised the Poppy Party in Erwood a year ago. They then asked me to do a whole afternoon with years 5 and 6 about WW1 and WW2, especially relating it to the locality.  I did a bit of research and it all went really well with the children very keen and interested all the time. One of the members of Erwood Young Farmers Club leads the after school club.  She spotted my dad's propeller and a WW1 shell I had brought in and asked if she could borrow them that weekend for the finals at national level of a wartime display at the Royal Welsh Showground.  One thing leads to another!  The class and teacher asked me to join them at Brecon Regimental Museum the following week.  They went dressed as evacuees, complete with their sandwiches wrapped in brown paper and string and had a wonderful time.  The two teachers and I enjoyed it too and I ended up teaching the children knitting and darning!

The other school was in Llanelwedd where I was asked to do a whole morning on Uganda, then
spend the afternoon helping them make paper bead necklaces Ugandan style, for them to sell at their Christmas fair on the Saturday. Both the headmaster and the children were moved by what they saw and heard, resulting in them asking to sell some the necklaces the Ugandan schoolchildren had made at their fair, while I was selling at Crickhowell Christmas Fair the same time.  When I returned the next week I was given two tubs of money. One from selling the Ugandan necklaces, and the other from selling the bracelets they had made themselves.

When I questioned the headmaster about this, knowing the children had wanted to keep their own, he said they bought them back so they could give that money as well to the Ugandan children! So moving.  They would also like to form a pen pal link with the children there.

The school in Malpas, Newport, where our son-in-law teaches, invited me once again to lead a morning there on Uganda.  This again went well and the children had fun trying out the Ugandan dances whilst balancing books on their heads! These children also learned new skills by selling the necklaces themselves and had spent a large part of the term exploring Uganda.

Although there was only a small number at the women's meeting in a chapel in Presteigne where I showed slides of  Kenya, some hopeful fruit has come from it.  The daughter of one of the women is a headmistress of a school in Scotland and she would like me to send her a cd of the photos for schools, thinking something could come of this.  Some of the women thought they would like to get involved in a project in some way and are exploring the possibility of  somehow encouraging a woman we met in Uganda who runs a project training women quarry workers in other skills.

Ifor and I were asked to lead an evening in a Radnorshire chapel, focussing on what we are doing, but with the aim of sparking off thoughts of how they could move forward in rural mission.  The chapel is in a sparsely populated area, unless you count all the sheep!  They seemed to appreciate that we understood how people in such areas tick, and that we shared the same values. Afterwards it was interesting to see how the farmers gathered around Ifor to pick his brains, and the women likewise around me. Our different approaches sparked off useful discussions amongst them, with people seeing ways forward.  In turn they gave me things to think about with my youth group.

New Wine Cymru held a weekend at the Towers Hotel and Spa in Swansea Bay for "Women who Lead".  The focus was mission. On the second afternoon I had been asked to lead one of the 'mission in action'  groups; the one on Rural Mission.  We are hardly experts but simply learning as we go and passing on what we find effective, what we don't, and what we are trying.  It was good to meet up with many friends from the past and make new ones, enjoying the facilities and the excellent teaching and worship together. Roy Godwin was inspiring as ever at the NWC Mid Wales gathering in Aberystwyth.

I love to pray for people 'hands on', but recently I've been asked to pray with people for their family members in other parts of the country, and God has done some amazing things. One lady who had been in a coma with pneumonia for some time, woke up and gripped her husband's hand. The infection had gone. Praise God!

Ifor writes..... Working with individuals in the community means most of my work is not for public consumption, but recently we had an encouraging example of team work. A local govt official contacted FCN on behalf of a farmer who was facing possible bankruptcy due to heavy handed treatment from a govt department.  I was able to pray with the farmer, and after pointing out a clear discrepancy in the case against him, suggested he find someone 'with a bit of clout' who could speak up on his behalf. We met with Kirsty Williams, the AM for Mid Wales, and within days the injustice was put right, saving him a penalty of tens of thousands of pounds. That in itself was wonderful, but more wonderful still is the fact that a number of individual farmers are finding faith in the midst of trouble and are being transformed from within. The numbers are not great, but the depth of transformation in a few is being seen and noticed by many.

Back to Penny for Christmas news.....
Just before Christmas some friends invited us to a gig at the Globe in Hay on Wye. This was an interesting venue - an old chapel with staging, spotlights, sofas and tables, a bar, yet the pulpit intact in one corner as a feature.  Very free, relaxing and popular.   The same friend learned I was arranging two nativity parties and looking for an old feeding trough, so he offered to make me one.  It was great, complete with woodworm and bird muck!

Half a dozen children came to the nativity party in Erwood market hall, dressed as different characters to walk through the story.  The mums were happy to dress up as the characters who hadn't been represented.  They also really enjoyed colouring nativity pictures with their children and helping them make figures from toilet rolls and squares of material.  Games were on the nativity theme, and they joined in enthusiastically.  After bring and share party food we watched a video.  All who came appreciated the party ... the beginnings of Messy Church? 

We set up the same party the previous day in Glasbury village hall  ... no one came!  (It was on a Saturday before Christmas - perhaps they were all Christmas shopping?).  Yet even in that, people seemed to appreciate such a party being organised. . .  when I went around the shops scouting for tinsel and second hand clothing for costumes, some gave me stuff for free when they heard what it would be used for.  The same thing happened with 'carols in the pub' at Glasbury.  It clashed with three other local events so no-one came! Whilst in the pub waiting for people to come, we got to know one woman there whom we invited to Felindre carols the next day.  She was the one who after that carol service showed interest in doing the Christianity Explored course - so God brought good out of it anyway, as He so often does.

Some other Christmas events......The youth Christmas party in our house was fun;  Our W.I. joined with the local Young Farmers Club to go carol singing around the farms and outlying houses near us; and we were involved in the carols and sketch in Erwood market hall.  This attracted a large number of villagers and was a great success, as was the Breconshire Baptist Association's Christmas dinner in Llanigon village hall and the carol service in Felindre village hall. Ifor led another carol service near Lower Chapel.  Folk in the chapel had worked really hard personally inviting many local families and getting the children to take part.  The chapel was packed and while Ifor led the service, I had the children making nativity figures from toilet roll tubes and material squares.  Then we had the children dress up for an impromptu nativity. Ifor led the combined service on Christmas morning in a village near us. Our family doubled the congregation but it was a lovely start to Christmas Day.

We celebrated the full twelve days of Christmas this year, with all the family here for most of the time. Katie and Sam joined us with young Caleb on the 27th when fifteen of us sat down for dinner. We had lots of fun together and were all wonderfully entertained by our adorable new addition, then eight weeks old.  Further entertainment was provided when Kevin and Sam had fun kayaking down the brook that runs by our garden!

We wish you all a happy and blessed new year and value  your continued prayer support.

SEPT/OCT 2013

Ifor and I had a wonderful summer and as the season drew to a close we made the most of the opportunities to have stalls in the late summer shows in Libanus, Felinfach, Erwood and Hundred House. The local Young Farmers' Club did a brilliant dance wearing hats down to only just above their knees at Felinfach Show!  One of their club leader's is keen for me to do a talk at their club.  She has recently read the "Heaven is for Real" book and has since lent it to her mother to read.  At Hundred House show someone from the anniversary service Ifor led at Capel y Ffin came up to my stall to remind me to send her that same book. Apparently I prayed with her for healing at that service which she said had made a big difference, so she was open for further prayer right there and then.
 

I made some good contacts at the Craft Fair in Crickhowell, including someone who works with young offenders who would like me to do a talk with them sometime.

When I showed short videos of  Ugandan dance and music at Erwood W.I., I spoke about the worrying situation of the wife of Pastor John Okello, whose schoolchildren provide me with the paper bead jewellery to sell for them.  Since then I have been able to report back that she does not have cancer, and one kind lady welled up in relief.  I have also had the opportunity to do a slideshow of Life and Farming in Kenya to a Young Farmers Club near Presteigne.  This talk includes a number of healings which we witnessed when over there, which will have given the teenagers further food for thought.  This was just a week after a church leader Ifor is mentoring did a presentation in the senior school they attend about the difference it makes sending a cow to Africa.   This was well received and was the first time he had been asked to speak at the school.  He has also been asked to speak at the primary school there, so its interesting how the Lord seems to be focussing on the children and youth in that town all of a sudden.




As summer came to an end, we joined two of our original home group
in Llandrindod Wells as the town closed their annual Victorian Festival with a bang - in fact lots of bangs!  Two bands of drummers converged at a crossroads and we joined the huge throng of flaming torch bearers processing up a to the lake for a big firework display.  All very atmospheric - enjoy the short video!

Cantref  Church, in whose parish Pen y Fan is located, organised a special service on the summit to celebrate life in the Brecon Beacons.  Those attending included Hill Farmers, Brecon Mountain

Rescue Team, the Armed Services, Visitors, Walkers, Cyclists, the National Park and the National Trust.   A minute’s silence was observed in memory of those who lost their lives in the Beacons this year.

 

Walking the dogs recently, I was struck by how much Autumn had quietly advanced.  I felt God say that Ifor and I are in the autumn of our lives, to which I objected!  Then the words " a season of mellow fruitfulness" came into my mind.  That sounded rather good!  I had the sense that He is bringing a season of fruitfulness into our ministry and the word "mellow"  suggests that it will not involve striving - His yoke is easy and he tells us to let Him have His way with us and not to strive.  I have been pushing myself lately and all the signs of that were there.  Also seemingly little fruitfulness.  His way sounds much better and more effective! 

 

I have been busy harvesting lots of beautiful berries - rowanberry, elderberry, crab apple, sloe and rose hip - and turning them into lots of wines, syrups and jellies!  The last of our runner beans made a lovely chutney!

Autumn is also the season of Harvest Festivals which many local people attend who would otherwise rarely go to church.  Ifor has been taking lots of these services whereas I have only done two, one of which was at Bronydd.  This chapel used to be an old drovers' smithy where they would shoe their cattle, sheep, geese and ponies for the long treks into the cities.

One elderly lady in the congregation, who remembers going there as a five year old, told me it was her mother who made the verse banner over the pulpit and who also used to lead a Sunday School there.  Ifor was also asked to be the after dinner speaker at Erwood harvest supper at the Market Hall to which a number of people from the village came and heard his testimony. 

Autumn is also the time we celebrated 36 years of our very happy marriage :)

 

 

Part of our calling is to encourage,

train up and equip the saints to work in the harvest field as in the verse in the photo above.  We have just had our third of such gatherings to which three dozen people came. After a wonderful time of worship together, I taught them how to hear God more easily, starting with different ways people in the Bible heard God through his creation; going on to hearing Him through word pictures I painted; progressing through hearing God through both created and man-made things they handled; and finally getting into groups of three to prophesy over each other.  Many people were encouraged by words they received.  The challenge now is for them not only to practice this gift but to take it out into the "market place".  We did something very similar last month in a much bigger church in Aberdare, with similar results.

 

The group who led worship that day used the same building to lead an open evening of worship for the county.  Four of them stayed on to pray through the night for God to move in this part. These nights will be repeated and hopefully build in strength.

Over these last few months I've felt like giving up with the monthly youth group I lead, most of whom do not go to any church. I've found it quite draining.  Then I realised what I find hardest is leading discussion with them, especially when the subjects I've prepared have not really gripped them, yet they still want to keep coming.  I was encouraged to learn that one teenager was so upset when she realised she'd forgotten a meeting, she wouldn't talk to her mum for an hour afterwards - and she was the one I had thought was least interested!  Jesus challenged me about lifting Him up, rather than focussing on other things.  As a result of praying this through with Him, I have decided to start doing the Christianity Explored course with them.  I have led several groups on this course in the past and found it to be really good. I think it could work with this age group, with games in place of discussion. We'll see.
Anne Roberts is having a most successful time running this course at the moment in a village hall.  They would like to carry on after the winter with the follow up course on Philippians.

God is using Ifor quietly but steadily amongst the farmers.  Do you remember the farmer in the Home Mission "Just Imagine" poster and bookmark, chatting to Ifor by his tractor? Last week he came to a farmer's supper in Crai village hall organised by our friends David and Carole Dry.  Dr Christie Glossop, the chief vet for Wales, shared her testimony after the meal which he enjoyed, together with two other farmers Ifor is involved with.  Another couple who Ifor has been involved in helping also came. This week Ifor has been helping one of those farmers TB testing his cattle.  Another of these farmers accompanied Ifor all the way to London and back to help pick up some furniture recently.  Ifor continues to milk in Glasbury three mornings a week and is building up good relationships there.

Ifor has been involved in three funerals recently which in turn have enabled further contacts, including a different undertaker.  Sadly Ifor has also been to the funerals of two ministers - Peter Hicks who has been doing a good work in Llandovery since his retirement from Spurgeons College; and John Hayward, previous minister of  Moriah, Risca.

It has been beautiful to witness how gently Jesus has been setting some people free from the affects of words spoken over them and things done in their pasts.  These people have come to know at a deeper level just how much He loves them and they are no longer experiencing some of the negative feelings that plagued them before.

It has been encouraging to make contact with Jeremy and Nicci Bevan who are doing a wonderful work leading an Anglican church in Gilwern. Jeremy has a good number of unchurched youth coming to a weekly programme he has put together, while Nicci seems to easily attract young mums with a New Age leaning.  Two of these were there with their tots when I spoke on different ways of easily making a difference to the lives of those around them who are struggling in various ways and so bring Light into their darkness. It seems they appreciated the talk and stayed until the end.  I have since been asked back to speak at the Women's World Day of Prayer next year.

Ifor and I met at Usk College of Agriculture in the seventies and this year the college celebrated its centenary with a big reunion weekend.  Much of this took place in a huge, grandly decorated sheep shed where they had been lambing earlier in the year!  It was good to catch up with old friends and renew friendships with some we have not been in touch with since our college days.  About 300 people came spanning a large age range.

In just ordinary living we make so many contacts which God can use at later dates.  My hairdresser here was traumatically bereaved  recently when her son and his girlfriend fell off a cliff which gave way. She recognised me when I called at her home and had already appreciated homemade cakes and things from our mutual friend from Glasbury Baptist Church.  I lent her a copy of Heaven is for Real to encourage her, having talked about it while having my hair cut earlier. Please pray for her.

Graham Kendrick and Cath Woolridge with her group performed wonderfully at Llandrindod Wells. The final song culminated in a silence of awe at God's presence.  Then just a few weeks later Cath launched her SOW Acapella CD at Brecon Cathedral.  A friend who prays with us regularly often remarks how Christian events and activities like these were very rare in the county until recent years.  The season is changing.

In fact Julian Richards spoke on just this at the Mid Wales New Wine Cymru Leaders gathering in Llandrindod Wells a few weeks ago - how God is birthing something new and in this new season people are becoming much more open to Jesus.
Just before he spoke, we had a time of individual ministry for each leader present.  This was an amazing time for me as I felt myself going down and down as if in a deep pond, with the challenge to trust Him, and ending up in the cloudy silt on the bottom where water nymphs are transformed into dragonflies, capable of so much more than before, just by soaring.

Ifor was greatly encouraged at a small two day Baptist Futures UK conference in Birmingham where he was one of three delegates representing Wales.  The free flowing, radical discussions amongst the delegates from all four countries in Britain showed the future can be bright.

We found one of our ducks two weeks after she disappeared, nesting the other side of the bridge!  She went on to hatch out eight little ducklings.  One died later - it never grew.  She now has seven ducklings almost as big as she is. They have no fear of swimming in the brook, even though it's raging like a torrent.

Much has been happening on the family front these last couple of months.  Ifor's mother has spent a few weeks in hospital and the doctor said she now needs to be transferred to a home.  We looked at a few that had been recommended.  The one we thought best for her rang up just a few days later to say that a room had become available and she could move in next week!  All these places generally have long waiting lists.  It's amazing how the Lord has worked everything out in such a short space of time.  The staff there are lovely and go the extra mile.  Please pray the transfer will be smooth and she will settle quickly. The home is actually in Breconshire and is very involved with the village community and school. The staff there saw from Ifor's business card that he is a reverend, so asked if he would be willing to minister to the other residents and staff at the home.

Our son Kevin, whose seasonal work with Welsh Water has come to an end, is now greatly enjoying work with the National Park.  This is voluntary but is more like an internship and he has been kitted out with a uniform.  He is having instruction and experience in a wide range of skills, with opportunity to gain certificates and qualifications which will set him in good stead.

I enjoyed a weekend in Chester for our daughter Katie's Baby Shower party.  Then a month later she gave birth to our gorgeous first grandchild, Caleb William Isaac Knott, who weighed in at 9lb 4.5oz. Sam was a great support to her. She did really well and was discharged on day two.


Meanwhile another daughter Becky announced that she and Pete are expecting their first baby in April.  So having picked up my crochet hook after 28 years to make a shawl for Caleb, I have now started crocheting a new shawl for Mini Matyus! 

Yes, its a new season in more ways than one!!!!