God bless you as you continue into 2026! We’ll be in touch again after our sabbatical. Please do let us know if you’d like to receive our itinerary and prayer requests.

We have had a very busy but wonderfully blessed summer, full of events and milestones for our family. Here are some bullet points of what’s been happening. At long last, at the bottom of this post, we will share some photos of Aliyah and Michael’s wedding which was such a joyous time!

• The five of us went to the Josiah Venture missionary care conference at the end of April and we loved it! Peter spoke from John’s gospel and we all enjoyed connecting with many wonderful missionaries (and kids) serving in Eastern Europe.

If you would like to hear Peter’s messages from the conference, click here. And here is an interview Peter did for the Josiah Ventures Stories podcast on ministry life and biblical preaching.

• Aliyah graduated from Moody with her degree in biblical studies on 17 May and then she and Mariah and Michael flew to the UK and the pre-wedding preparations started in earnest.

• We had MANY visitors with us during the pre and post wedding weeks. We had quite a few days of 40+ people eating with us in our home which was an organisational challenge (!) but such a privilege. Mariah and Hannah were my right hand women. It was a very sweet few weeks – we only wished we would’ve had more time with each of the precious friends and family that filled our home. In June and July we enjoyed more days with friends who visited from the USA.
• The day after the wedding, Kaylah got baptised! What a joy for her to share this day with all the friends and family who were still in town. We had an amazing evening at our home afterwards – a special cake made for her by a friend, Kaylah and her friends learning and performing a dance in our driveway and an impromptu worship time which filled our neighbourhood with a joyful noise!

• The weekend after Aliyah and Michael’s wedding, our niece Rebecca married Kenny in Norwich. The girls were bridesmaids and Peter did the sermon. It was a lovely day!

• Trinity Chippenham held our biggest youth weekend away yet (end of June – Peter spoke) and largest ever whole church weekend away (middle of July during a heat wave!). Both were really encouraging times! Peter managed to finish the speaking at the youth weekend before succumbing to the tummy bug that ripped through our family that following week – no fun, but it thankfully somehow stayed contained within our family despite the many people who we were around! The same weekend as our whole church went away, Noah graduated from his course at Union School of Theology. We’re so proud of him!

• Aliyah and Michael stayed here for a few days after their honeymoon in Montenegro before they moved to their home together in Dallas. I celebrated my birthday with the best gift – having our whole family here together. We had a special night of worship along with some dear friends from TC. (The photo at the top of this page was taken that night!)

• Joel graduated from high school on the 5th of July! We had a small celebration as a family that included a photo slideshow, messages of encouragement and advice from some men in his life and a biscoff cake made by Hannah. We are so proud of him. He leaves one week from today for Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. We will miss him very much! Mariah took the senior photos below while the two of them were in Albania visiting missionary friends.

• It was a joy having Mariah here with us this summer. She was so helpful and brought so much joy and enthusiasm to our family! She went back to Moody mid-July in order to work a lot of hours at her job in security at the school which she loves. We were sad to see her go but we are so thankful at how she seems to be thriving in the Lord, in her studies and job too.

• In the midst of all the events this summer, we’ve been continuing to serve the Lord at Trinity Chippenham and beyond. Peter went to the European Leadership Forum in May, he’s been preaching through Galatians on Sundays at TC, we’ve continued to help lead our life group and continued with various types of personal/pastoral ministry.
• At the end of July, the younger girls and I finally finished our school year (we had to take a lot of breaks this year due to travelling and the wedding). I continue to be thankful for the privilege of educating and discipling our children.
• We leave for France a week from tomorrow where we’ll attend the Christian Workers Conference (a break for those full-time ministry), in Annecy. Then we’ll have another week on our own in another part of France. We are definitely feeling in need of a rest so please pray it’s a refreshing and restorative time for us.

The big highlight of the summer was Aliyah and Michael’s wedding!  Here is the video in case anyone would still like to watch it. The wedding was an absolute joy – so Christ-honouring and meaningful and also fun.  The weeks surrounding it were also wonderful. We were overwhelmed and humbled to see how so many friends supported us in a myriad of ways – accommodating the many visitors from overseas, helping to provide food pre and post wedding, helping with flowers, food, decorating, etc for the wedding . . . the list could go on! I think those weeks were the biggest organisational situation I have ever been part of and it was amazing to receive so much help and support.

If you’ve read this far, let us bless you with a few more photos of our sweet grandson Owen, who will turn one next week. We adore him and enjoy every minute we get to spend with him and Hannah and Noah.

Thank you so much for reading this and praying for our family! We are truly grateful for your prayers and support as we serve the Lord in the UK and beyond. As always, please let us know how we can pray for you too.

Our trip to the USA was extremely busy, but full of blessings and answered prayers! Thank you so much for praying for us while we were travelling. We know that God used your prayers to strengthen us in the midst of the non-stop schedule.  Here are some stats: 47 days, 4 flights, 1 train ride, 2 snowstorms, 39x Peter speaking (including 2 Cor Deo intensives, one youth retreat, two seminars, 1 chapel service, 1 church podcast, 1 radio show, 1 advent series of videos pre-recorded, 3 adult Sunday School classes), 5 churches visited, 9x packing our bags, dozens of prayer partners and friend connections, two daughters visited! Whew!

God so graciously sustained us through these seven weeks. The highlights for us were spending time with precious friends and family. And being able to serve and love people in various settings – both in homes and in churches.  We all really enjoyed the wintery weather too, especially the snow which we don’t often get in the UK!

We have many photos to share  . . . this will be a long post! We hope you enjoy seeing a little glimpse of our trip! Although we were very, very busy with ministry, we were so blessed to also have time with family.  The majority of the photos are focused on family times and the beauty of creation as it wasn’t always appropriate tor easy to take them in settings with prayer partners and ministry moments.

(NOTE: the photo above is our reunion in Missouri with Aliyah and Mariah as they came down to help at the youth weekend at Wildwood Church).

 

 

Wow, if you got this far, well done! I know this was a super long post, but we wanted to give you a flavour of our trip and share a few highlights. We are back full swing into normal life here in Chippenham. We’d appreciate prayer for ongoing ministry at Trinity Chippenham including the challenges that are coming with growth. We are praying especially about leadership development as well as God’s provision for finances for the building we are looking at buying. As a family, we are also taking a 5 day trip to the Czech Republic at the end of April where Peter will be speaking at a Josiah Venture missionary conference. It is a privilege to serve Jesus and we need His grace and wisdom so much every day. Thank you for praying for us!

Happy New Year to all of you! We have had a wonderful time being all together as a family these past weeks. It’s been a very full house and a really special time! (See the bottom of this post for more photos)

Hannah, Noah and Owen flew to the USA yesterday to see Noah’s family. We will miss them so much as between our two trips we won’t see them for two months.

It’s been sweet having Michael (Aliyah’s fiance) with us for the past week. He leaves on Friday to go back to Dallas where he is studying.

The rest of us leave for the USA next week.These days before we leave are going to be very busy for us. Please would you pray for health and strength (during this season of many illnesses) and sleep (which has been very challenging for Melanie recently).  We’d also appreciate prayer for focus and efficiency as we prepare many details for our trip and for God’s help as we make preparations to make sure things are covered at Trinity Chippenham while we are away.  Humanly speaking, it feels impossible to get it all done, but we are trusting in Him to help us.

Also, two big church related requests: the full-time Trinity Chippenham elders are preparing to interview applicants for a new role at Trinity Chippenham – personal assistant to the elders. Our church is growing and the elders are in great need of help with practical matters so they can focus on pastoral ministry. Please pray for wisdom for them to choose the right person and that whoever is hired can immediately begin to help reduce the workload that the elders carry. Secondly, we are excited to share that we’ve found a potential building as a new home for our church. It’s still early stages, but the building search team will present what we know so far to the church on the 12th of January. Please pray for wisdom as they communicate to our church family and for God to open doors for us to move ahead if it’s His will for us.

Thank you for praying for us and Lord willing, we will see you some of you soon! Here are a few photos from the past weeks.

So, what are the 15 sessions?

Today, I will teach for three hours at Union School of Theology, using Zoom. It is a first-year Bible handling and preaching class.

I am in Guildford this weekend at a church I visit twice yearly.  I have five sessions spread through Saturday afternoon, evening and Sunday morning.  Two of these sessions involve training preachers. I have an evening session on how to respond to a shifting culture, and then I preach twice on Sunday morning.

I am travelling to Suffolk next week to speak at a Keswick Living Word event.  This is a gathering of local believers under the Keswick banner, where I will preach for three evenings from 2 Corinthians 3-5 on the New Covenant.  I also have two leaders workshops during the day.

Then, the following weekend, we will head to Surrey. On the morning of the 27th, I will preach at Oakhall Church from Galatians, then return to Trinity to speak in our Judges series in the afternoon.

There it is, fifteen sessions in twelve days.  Prayer is appreciated for travel, family relationships, and each session to make a difference.

What did we do?  Well, we led five church services, had four midweek meetings, ran a holiday club over five days, spent time with the children and youth outside of holiday club time, and spent time with local believers and missionaries to encourage them in their work.

It is encouraging to feel aligned with local workers and to feel the mutual trust building so well.  They risked sharing their relationships with locals with us and it was a real honour.  For example, the church in the village, which they have planted fifteen years or more ago, is doing well in its connection with women and children, but the men of the village are much more resistant.  We were invited to a gathering of 16 local men, all but one of whom would call themselves Muslim.  Three of us were able to share our testimonies and find out more about the challenges they face trying to provide for their families (essentially trying to farm with inadequate water supply!)  The gathering went well and hopefully it will be part of building a bridge to these men.

The children’s work went really well.  We definitely felt an increase in distraction and interruption on the day when we told the story of the cross, but other than that, they were very attentive and focused throughout the week.  It was really encouraging to see how the local women had grown spiritually during the last year.

One of the key roles we could have on this visit was to encourage the missionary family that we met on previous visits.  They are a wonderful family who are plugging away all year round.  We can come in and offer some energy and a week of activity, but they are the ones who are walking with the locals through all of life.  It was a blessing to be able to bring a Ukrainian speaker from our church who proved to be a huge encouragement to the Dad who doesn’t speak English and tends to miss out on so much of the fellowship as a result.

It was not all easy.  The temperatures were high, hitting 39 degrees C (102F) on the first day of the kids work.  Many on the team struggled to sleep well, even though we were blessed by the accommodation provided.  Some sort of cold/flu worked through several members of the team, taking them out of action for a day or so, one after another.  And sadly, on the Friday afternoon, we received the sad news that one team member’s grandmother had died unexpectedly.  Everyone’s heart broke for her , and we were able to get her on the next flight home, accompanied by another team member.  So there were challenges, but the team carried each other’s burdens and the ministry progressed even when one or two were missing at various times.

I (Peter) left the team on Saturday evening, to get back for church at TC on Sunday.  The rest of the team returned on Monday afternoon.  We are all tired, but thankful.  Please continue to pray for the church in Albania.  It is not an easy country to live in, but God is building his church and we were thankful to be able to contribute just a little bit to that work.  Thank you for praying for us.  We are grateful to be able to co-labour in ministry with you!

It’s been an eventful few months since we last updated our website.  We are thankful for God’s faithfulness and kindness to us.  We had Hannah’s husband Noah’s parents and brother come to visit us in April.  We had such a great month together, including a special week away together on the Devon coast.  It was a beautiful area and we made lots of memories.  Above you can see the 11 of us on Peter’s birthday. (We missed Aliyah of course!)

Aliyah and Michael have been dating for a year and a half.  In that time, we have all grown to love Michael.  We had some time with him in the USA last year while we were there for Hannah’s wedding and then he spent a few weeks here in England last summer with us too.  He is a godly guy who loves the Lord and wants to serve Him.  We can’t wait to see what God is going to do with these two for His glory!  Lord willing, they will get married at the end of May next year.

We are so thankful to God for sustaining us these past months.  Peter and I have felt very maxed out at times in terms of ministry – preaching, life group, pastoral care, leadership and more, and of course parenting, our primary ministry.  There have been many moments of exhaustion but also many joyful ones.  We feel so privileged that the Lord gives us so many opportunities to serve him.  Our home has also been full, not only with our children, but also full of many visitors and we have more to come in the next few weeks.  Please keep praying for us to abide in Christ and draw all we need from him.  Also pray for Peter, Joel and Aliyah as they go to Albania with the TC team at the end of July.  God is so good and he is worth pouring ourselves out for!

Wow, we are so very grateful to the Lord for allowing us the privilege of serving him in Albania.  Last summer, some of the church leaders in the area invited Peter to come back and teach them again.  We decided to go all together as a family which was such a joy!  For me (Melanie), it was such a healthy step – getting out of my comfort zone, trusting God with fears and unknowns and actually putting my passion for missions into action.  For many years, my heart has been to spread the gospel to the nations which is of course what we’ve been doing here in the United Kingdom and beyond.  But Peter has mostly been the one doing the foreign trips and the upfront ministry. I’ve always believed that we are a team and I am just as much a part of the ministry as he is, even if I was holding down the fort at home, taking care of our growing family.  But it was a special joy for me to be able to join him and serve alongside him this time in a cross-cultural setting.  Perhaps it’s the beginning of a new season for our family as none of our children are tiny now, and they are gradually but steadily flying the nest. It’s always been our vision to serve as a family and be willing to go wherever God sends us.

Albania is an incredibly needy nation – both materially and spiritually.  About half the population are Muslim and half are Orthodox, though most people do not practice their religion.  Still, people consider their religion as part of their identity and are often not open to anything different. The church is very small and lacks resources (money and leaders and training).  There are many, many towns and villages without any evangelical witness and even where there are churches, they are struggling and often without leadership.

Our church, Trinity Chippenham, has started partnering with The Way of Peace church in the town of Lushnje that is led by Pastor Berti (you can read his amazing story in the book God’s Secret Listener).  We sent a team last year to help support them in their outreach in a small village and we’ll send another one this coming August, Lord willing. So one of our goals in this trip was to continue to strengthen the relationship between the churches and do what we could to bless them and especially, pour into the leaders.  There is a wonderful Ukranian missionary family (the L’s) who serve alongside Berti and his wife Tana so another of our goals was also to spend time with them and encourage them.

Here are some highlights and answered prayers from our time in Albania:

1. Small (but big!) thing . . . I am so thankful that I had no migraines on this trip and our family stayed healthy! (Peter and the kids had colds and coughs right up until we left.)
2. Peter found real joy in preaching in a prison (a very rough place) and meeting some Christian prisoners who were full of Jesus and actively sharing him with others.  One man’s story in particular was incredibly moving. He is in prison basically for life but says he actually doesn’t want to leave because he feels that is his mission field.
3. We were delighted that our dear friend, Arber and his wife, Sara, surprised us and drove from another city to meet with us. Arber became a Christian himself in prison and is now in full time prison ministry. Their enthusiasm for the Lord and desire to start up a transitional house for released prisoners was so exciting.
4. Peter was asked to do 2 seminars for church leaders and their wives on the topic of what is the church and how to encourage people to attend and value the fellowship of believers.  I shared with the wives and encouraged them from Matthew 6 that even though their service for the Lord may be hidden, the Lord sees it and he will reward them.  He also preached in 3 churches (Psalm 17 and Matthew 8) and I gave my testimony in 2 of them.  Again, a joy to see hungry hearts and be able to encourage these precious believers. I personally felt like the Lord helped me to trust him with the public speaking (not something I love).
5. Peter and I were able to go into the school connected with the Way of Peace church and do conversational English with the children.  It was really fun! We got to go to six classes in 3 hours.  The school is an outreach to the community and doing a wonderful work.
6. We and (especially) our children spent a lot of time with the L family and forged (or deepened) their friendships with their children.  This family is so full of Jesus and his love and we loved every minute we got to spend with them.  Their single-minded hearts to serve the Lord, live simply and persevere in planting seeds in the hard soil of Albania was inspiring to us.  They were so gracious to us and fed us many delicious meals! Time with this family was a huge highlight for us.
7. It was also so encouraging to spend time with S, the pastor of the Mosaic Church in Lushnje.  He is full of energy and passion to share the gospel, especially among the outcasts and marginalised people of the city. The love and warmth in his church was tangible and the church is doing a wonderful work.
8. The last night we were there, Berti and Tana invited us over to their house.  It was a wonderful evening and Pastor Berti shared with us about some of the challenges they face every day in ministry and the needs for church leaders. He also shared about some of the development projects they are faithfully working to implement in the village which is very impoverished.  I feel more determined than ever to continue to support them and the L family. They are faithful, hard-working servants of Jesus in a spiritually dark place. I have so much respect and love for them. We can put you in touch with them if you’d like to support what they are doing financially.
9. Everyone we met was so generous and kind to us! We also very much enjoyed the Albanian food we were served.  The olives and goat/sheep cheese were amazing.  My family enjoyed the byrek (Lushnje is famous for this national favourite food – pastry with cheese or meat or spinach) and the dried fruits, fig jam, olive oil – everything is fresh and delicious.

Finally, for some photos:

Please pray for Albania!l Pray for more workers – especially Albanian leaders and missionaries who are willing and able to serve in the smaller cities and villages. Pray for the Lord to shine the light of the gospel into hearts and open blind eyes to see his love and truth.  And pray for Trinity Chippenham as we send another team this summer and seek to keep supporting what God is doing in Lushnje and beyond!

Kaylah had an important behind the scenes role – controlling all the recorded audios (sound effects, music, etc). I got to watch all three performances and I was so moved every time.  Of course I was really proud of my family but actually my heart was so warmed to see so many of our church family playing their roles too. We had young kids controlling spotlights (under adult supervision), an advertising/social media team, musicians performing live music, a catering team, a backstage team helping the actors with timings, make-up, props, etc. and more! It was so beautiful to see all the parts of the body of Christ working together to do something to share Jesus with our community.  We pray for much fruit!

The same day Mariah left, Aliyah left for Canada to visit her boyfriend, Michael and then went back to Moody for the new semester. She seems to be thriving there in her classes and many ministry opportunities.  Hannah and Noah left for the USA at the end of January in order to re-apply for his UK visa.  We are thanking God that the first appointment he needed came through very quickly and the visa in now in process.  Hannah is working remotely at the moment, but will need to return to the UK for work in mid-Marc.h We are asking God for a super speedy visa approval process for Noah so they can be apart as little as possible.  We miss them but we are so happy they are getting this time with Noah’s family – an unplanned visit but we hope a blessed one.

Thank you for praying for our family!  We’ll be sending out an email update shortly that will have more ministry news.  We are thankful to be a team with you!

These have been some of the joyful highlights for us the past few months. However, probably every photo could also tell backstories of hard things we’ve faced surrounding those joyful events.  Life in this sin-stained world is hard.  We don’t want to paint a false rosy picture.  Instead, we want to be the first to admit that we struggle with sin.  We struggle with the effects of the fall on our bodies and minds that often feel weak.  We struggle with not having enough time to do all the things that feel really important.  We struggle at times with family conflict – clashes of personalities and opinions.  We have recently also struggled with grief and sorrow over some losses and major disappointments.  Praise God that his love, his forgiveness, his strength and comfort are constant in our lives.  An anchor for our souls. And we praise Him for the hope that we have . . . that one day the tastes of joy that we experience on this broken earth will burst into fullness beyond our wildest imaginations.

Thank you for praying for us.  We are thankful for you!! Please see our mini update (coming to your inbox very soon if it hasn’t already) for more prayer requests and news.